BusinessThe ProfessorBeginner
The Money-Smart Business Launch, a free business course on Tomo

The Money-Smart Business Launch

Like Duolingo, but for The Money-Smart Business Launch. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.

A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Setting Up the Pipes and Keeping What You Earn. It starts from scratch.

12 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Penny the Penguin, the guide who teaches the The Money-Smart Business Launch course
The Money-Smart Business Launch
with Penny the Penguin
12
Levels
2
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in The Money-Smart Business Launch

  • The IRS defines a business by intent to profit rather than immediate success
  • Operating in a business-like manner signals intent
  • Initial losses are common and don't automatically disqualify you as a business
  • Maintaining a separate log of hours worked on the venture
  • Keeping a dedicated folder for receipts and invoices
  • Documenting changes in your strategy to increase profitability
  • Identifying the specific records that prove business legitimacy
  • Business losses can offset other income sources
  • IRS defines business by intent
  • Hobby expenses are not deductible
  • Profit motive test for tax loss
  • Records that prove legitimacy
  • Safe harbor rule
  • Safe harbor and burden of proof
  • An EIN acts as a 'social security number' for the business
  • Understanding the tax implications of the 'profit motive' test
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives The Money-Smart Business Launch the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

Defining Your Profit Intent

Which of these actions most clearly signals to the IRS that you are running a business rather than a hobby?

Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.

Course map

Where The Money-Smart Business Launch takes you

Stop worrying about the IRS and start building. Learn how to separate your finances, claim the right deductions, and handle taxes like a pro from day one.

  1. 1

    Setting Up the Pipes

    • The 'Business vs. Hobby' Line
    • The Two-Wallet Rule
  2. 2

    Keeping What You Earn

    • The Art of the Write-Off
    • Surviving Your First Tax Bill

2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
The Professor

The Money-Smart Business Launch is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

Start free

Start The Money-Smart Business Launch today.

Download Tomo, search The Money-Smart Business Launch, and play your first lesson in under a minute.