Blog: Career Development

How long does it take to become a CPA" has no single answer, and the reason is not vagueness. It is that four separate requirements each have their own clock, three of the four are set by your state board, and one state rule can compress the whole path by more than a year.

Candidates who understand the structure finish faster than candidates who are simply diligent, because most of the available time savings come from sequencing rather than from studying ...

Almost everything written about marketing an accounting firm assumes a budget and recommends spending it badly. The more useful observation is that the highest-return marketing activities available to a small CPA firm cost nothing but time — and that most firms neglect them in favor of things that feel like marketing.

There is also an uncomfortable prior question, which this post takes seriously: many small firms do not need more leads. They need better clients and ...

Candidates hear "the CPA Exam changed" and assume the change affects them dramatically. Usually it does not. Blueprint revisions move content between sections, adjust the depth at which a topic is tested, and add or retire specific subjects — they rarely alter what it takes to pass, which is understanding the material well enough to apply it.

What genuinely does affect candidates, and what this post spends most of its time on, is different: choosing a discipline section, knowing ...