Ten lessons, from entity to exit.
A free written course on running a compliant US business, in the order the decisions actually arrive. Each lesson is a complete specialist guide with a tool to practice on. No signup, no upsell, read at your pace.
Ten lessons, in the order the decisions arrive.
Each lesson is a complete specialist guide, paired with the tool you practice on. Read in order the first time; return in any order after.
Choose your entity
The core tradeoff, taught in full: an LLC gives liability protection with minimal ceremony, while a corporation adds stock, a board, and investor compatibility at the price of formality. Most owner-operated businesses fit the LLC; venture-track companies fit the Delaware corporation; nobody needs an entity before there is something to protect. Read the lesson, then practice with the entity quiz.
Pick your state
Home state wins for most owners because operating in a state forces you to register there anyway, so forming elsewhere means paying two states forever. The two exceptions worth the detour: investors who require Delaware, and location-independent businesses that value Wyoming's privacy and low ongoing cost. Compare states side by side, with the state guides as reference.
EIN, bank account, first records
The EIN is free from the IRS and takes minutes online, and everything downstream keys on it: banking, payroll, tax returns. The bank account matters even more than it seems, because commingled money is the first thing a plaintiff's lawyer looks for when testing whether your liability shield is real. The EIN and the bank account.
The operating agreement
Skip it and your state's default rules govern your company, and they rarely match what partners actually intended about money, exits, or deadlock. Banks ask for it at account opening, and courts weigh it when deciding whether the company is genuinely separate from you, one member or ten. What every clause does.
The S-corp decision
The election saves the 15.3 percent self-employment tax only on profit above a fair salary you must actually pay yourself, and it creates a payroll obligation that runs every month, profit or not. The math starts working when steady profit clears a defensible salary with room to spare, and not before. The election, explained, sized with the savings calculator.
The annual report cycle
Nearly every state expects a periodic report on its own cadence: fixed dates like Florida's May 1, formation anniversaries, or every second year. Missing it starts the quiet slide from good standing toward administrative dissolution, which is why this one goes on the calendar the day you form. Annual reports and the calendar.
Operating in more states
Merely selling into a state rarely requires registering there, but employees, an office, or property usually do, and that is foreign qualification. Sales tax nexus is the separate trigger with its own volume thresholds, so a growing e-commerce business can owe tax registrations in states it never physically enters. Foreign qualification, with nexus as the tax twin.
Quarterly estimated taxes
Four dates a year, and two safe harbors that make the penalty impossible: pay in at least 100 percent of last year's tax, 110 percent at higher incomes, or 90 percent of the current year's. Close enough, paid quarterly, beats precise and late every time. The quarterly system, practiced on the calculator.
Equity and the 83(b) clock
The 83(b) window is thirty days from the grant, filed by mail with the IRS, with no extensions and no exceptions. File it and vesting equity is taxed once, at grant, when it is nearly worthless; miss it and every future vest becomes ordinary income at that day's value. The 83(b) walkthrough and SAFEs, explained.
Winding down properly
Formal dissolution ends the filing obligations; simply stopping does not. States keep billing entities that quietly walk away, fees compound, and the trail follows the owners. Done properly, the company closes clean and can even come back later by reinstatement. Dissolving an LLC, step by step.
A course, not a content pile.
Taught by the people who file the paperwork.
The curriculum is drawn from what 220,000+ businesses actually needed, in the order they needed it. Every claim inside a lesson follows the library's rule: verified at the source, stamped with a review date, and corrected when the rules move.
The Academy, answered.
Is it really free?
Completely. No account, no email wall, no locked lessons. The reasoning is the same as the rest of the library: if the course makes you competent, you will remember who taught you when there is a filing to do. The optional newsletter exists if you want new material as it publishes.
Is this a video course?
No, it is written, and that is a choice rather than a gap. Written lessons can be skimmed, searched, quoted to your co-founder, and re-read the night before a deadline. If video versions ship someday they will supplement the text, not replace it.
Do I have to read the lessons in order?
The first time, yes, because each lesson assumes the vocabulary of the ones before it. After that, treat it as a reference: jump straight to lesson five when profit grows, or lesson seven when a second state appears.
How long does it take?
An honest afternoon for the full read, and each lesson stands alone at ten to twenty minutes. The tools add whatever time you spend on your own numbers, which is the best-spent part.
Should I finish the course before forming my company?
Lessons one and two, yes, because entity and state are the two decisions that are annoying to change later. Everything after that can be learned as it becomes relevant, which is roughly how the course is ordered anyway. When you are ready, the filing itself takes minutes.
What should I read when the course ends?
Whatever your business puts in front of you next, and the library almost certainly covers it: the full guides library for how-to depth, your state guide for the local rules, and the glossary whenever a word gets in the way.
Graduate by doing.
Lesson one starts whenever you do.
Read the entity lesson, take the quiz with your real plans, and the rest of the course meets you wherever your business goes next.
Service costs live in one place: pricing.