The "Faxed" and Regularly-Scheduled
TaxFaxTM Exits Stage Left
Volume 13, Number 24
Issue 624
624 weeks ago-in July 1993 to be exact-I had an idea to start a weekly newsletter, TaxFaxTM, dealing with tax and entrepreneurial topics that would be sent by "broadcast" fax to central Virginia businesses that would find it of interest. Now, it's time for that idea to be retired while I reinvent it. I've always been proud that I was "the first" and recently, with the coining of the word "blog" to denote an obsessive writer who writes about topics important to them and posts it free, publicly, for those to read, I know that I was at the beginning of an important trend.
Back then the Internet was just beginning, "blogging" had never been heard of and there was-to the best of my belief-no "free" source of regularly-scheduled, electronically-delivered financial news, at least in Virginia. I have always claimed that I was the first to write such a newsletter and I eventually dovetailed my idea into a radio show, into Zine publication and into a soon-to-be-released book. My trademark, "TaxFaxTM" has withstood at least two attempted encroachments-one by another CPA in North Carolina and one by the Internal Revenue Service.
Sometime in 1997 or so, all issues of TaxFaxT started appearing on my website, www.greatcpa.com, but I did not abandon the practice of printing an issue each Monday and faxing it to 100-150 of my best customers, allies and friends. No matter whether it was a holiday, the middle of busy season or a day that I was out of the office, I wore the publication of another issue of TaxFaxTM as a badge of honor.
I have recently decided, after talking with a few key advisers, that, effective with this issue, I will no longer be faxing an issue every Monday. The environmentalists have won! I will stop wasting paper. I will, instead, issue content directly to the Internet at www.greatcpa.com.
I have also decided that I will not issue a newsletter EVERY Monday anymore and that I will take a break this Summer to address some other personal, professional and political goals. I will continue to write, but not each Monday-it will be done frequently, but not on a regular basis.
A successful entrepreneur needs to know when to have a product take a bow and exit the stage for a reincarnation. This is the last issue of TaxFaxT that will be distributed by broadcast fax. It is also the last issue that will be regularly-scheduled for every Monday. Though I will continue to write issues and will, of course, keep issuing numbers of TaxFaxT, it won't be every Monday. For the immediate present, this Summer, I am going to devote my writing time to making a dedicated effort to making the fifth major set of requested revisions to my 250 page book, Tales Ideas and Quotes from a greatcpaT.
I also plan on devoting my frequent desire to pound out 2,000 words about entrepreneurial success to working with several members of the Virginia Press Association to publish a newspaper column-just like I did from 1990 to 1993 before I started TaxFaxT. The fact that I've been asked to syndicate TaxFaxT to small newspapers around Virginia is in and of itself an exciting possibility to reincarnate TaxFaxT as something new and exciting.
Every product--including TaxFaxTM--should a life cycle. The old analogy of the buggy whip manufacturer comes to mind. I counsel people about this every day: I just haven't wanted to admit it about this publication because I became emotionally attached to it. Now twelve years after I started writing each Monday, there is a plethora of websites that deal with tax and entrepreneurial content and most people prefer to find their own content by using the Internet. A few very valued customers have recently asked if I would consider publishing TaxFaxT directly to the Internet and not issuing a fax to their fax machine every Monday and I have listened.
TaxFaxT was a great supplemental tool to my radio show, The Entrepreneurs' Hour Radio ShowT which aired about 250 shows from 1999 to 2002. I have received offers to start the show again and am considering them.
I want to thank all the people who have encouraged me to write, especially the several of you who often called to say that a particular issue was a good one-Joe Walton of Kappa Networks, Pat Williams of Cavedo Corporation, List Hannig of Beach Baby, Inc., Tom Gays and Sandy Gadberry of Saunders Cary and Patterson (the greatest law firm around) and Causey Davis, recently retired from First Community Bank.
The biggest thanks of all, though, goes to the folks who quietly read every issue and took the advice to heart and then credited me with success, either overtly or passively.
TaxFaxTM exits the stage of this Act (it was a long one), but look for it to make a grand entrance, duly reincarnated.
David B. Robinson, CPA
Index of Previous Issues of Tax Fax
