2025-09-12 13:57:39
Investing in property is one of the best ways to build wealth.
Whether you’re looking to develop a side hustle or seeking to generate passive income, real estate is a promising way to maximize your initial capital.
But the simple truth about investing in property is that it’s costly up-front. And, in most cases, it ties up your money for a significantly long time (unless you’re looking at flipping houses).
So whether you are considering investing in rental properties or some other type of real estate investment, it’s important to explore opportunities to minimize spending and maximize earnings without forcing you to sell before it’s financially viable.
Cost segregation is a smart tax strategy and a valuable opportunity to do just that. So, if you’re willing to do a bit of learning to maximize your income, here’s everything you need to know about cost segregation as a property owner.
So, what is cost segregation?
Essentially, it’s a financial strategy that relies on the concept of asset depreciation, which naturally happens due to wear and tear.
Traditionally, properties depreciate over time — 27.5 years for residential buildings and 39 years for commercial properties. This depreciation allows owners to reduce their taxable income, saving them a significant amount of money.
But here’s the deal about owning properties. They consist of a multitude of different parts, none of which depreciate at the same pace.
That’s where cost segregation comes in. This strategy allows you to break down your property into several distinct assets that depreciate at different rates, allowing you to claim tax deductions without waiting for 27 years or longer.
The great thing about cost segregation is that it’s a strategy available to almost anyone.
However, just like any other financial tactic, it necessitates an in-depth understanding, diligence, and (more often than not) some professional support.
Here’s what implementing a cost segregation strategy looks like in practice.
For the most part, property owners (unless exceptionally experienced) won’t have the insights required to implement this tactic successfully. That’s why it’s highly recommended to hire a trustworthy cost segregation specialist team that specializes in this type of work.
You’ll find that some such businesses offer free consultations. And you’ll find that some even offer advanced calculator tools to help property owners get a better initial idea about the potential real estate depreciation tax savings.
Once you hire them, these service providers will inspect and analyze your property. Then, they’ll present you with an in-depth cost segregation study and plan for implementing the tactic in your unique case.
In general, cost segregation breaks down a complete property into different asset categories. These include:
Once identified, these assets can be reclassified into their proper categories. Then, you can apply an accelerated depreciation schedule to reduce payable taxes sooner rather than later.
Finally, your accountant can file for tax deductions on your IRS forms, allowing you to benefit from tax savings.
Now that you understand how it works, it’s time to go over the potential benefits of cost segregation.
Ultimately, this tax strategy isn’t just beneficial for the sake of lowering taxes. It’s especially helpful in allowing you to claim tax savings sooner rather than later.
On the one hand, the tax strategy helps you boost your cash flow, unlocking capital for further investments.
On the other hand, it saves your funds from being eaten by inflation, especially considering that the same amount of money is worth more now than it will be in ten, fifteen, or thirty years.
According to the recent One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed in July 2025, property owners can now permanently claim 100% bonus depreciation on qualifying assets.
This means they can fully deduct qualifying assets in year one of owning a property.
The act applies to all properties bought after January 19, 2025, and it is 100% permanent.
Cost segregation offers impressive benefits. But the simple fact is that it’s not always the right choice.
Firstly, your property may not be a good candidate for this type of tax strategy.
For instance, if it’s a small piece of real estate or costs less than $500,000, a cost segregation study could easily cost more than the potential tax savings. In this case, going down this path is simply not a viable option.
Secondly, cost segregation is typically not recommended to property owners planning to sell within three to five years. In this case, you might have to pay back some of the depreciated sum as “recapture tax.”
This potential drawback might not make a difference for you, especially as making tax savings now could be worth a lot more than a future fee due to inflation. However, it’s essential to consider this rule if you’re planning on filing for depreciation.
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If you’re looking at property as a long-term investment (regardless of how you plan on using it to build wealth), cost segregation could offer exceptional tax benefits.
So don’t hesitate to study and potentially implement this tax strategy. Who knows, it might be the thing that allows you to maximize your ROI and wealth through growing your property investment business.
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2025-09-10 17:09:00
You’ve launched your startup. That’s a win.
But you’re wearing five different hats and burning through your budget. So now you’re wondering how to market smarter.
Lots of flashy marketing tools promise to “10x your growth,” so it’s easy to pile on technology.
But you don’t need a dozen high-cost systems to look polished or reach your target audience.
You just need a lean, scalable marketing stack that helps you build fast, measure clearly, and grow without bloat.
Let’s take a closer look at the martech trends shaping 2025 and the budget-friendly tools that can help you scale your marketing efforts.
Business owners today aren’t choosing between “free” and “fancy”. They’re choosing tools that scale.
The best 2025 marketing tools for startups are lean, smart, and AI-powered. Let’s break this down below.
Jasper’s 2025 report says that 63% of organizations officially use AI, and 78% believe it’s having a positive impact.
It’s not just a buzzword anymore — it’s a budget-saving, return on investment (ROI)-boosting engine.
Still skeptical?
Marketers everywhere agree it’s helping them reach their growth potential. According to the same report:
Organizations now juggle 62 martech tools at once. That’s a lot of logins — and a big loss of valuable time switching between tools.
But more tools doesn’t equal better marketing.
In fact, HubSpot found that AI-powered, unified stacks are the real game-changer for connection and conversion.
➜ Startups need fewer tools. However, they need marketing tools that communicate effectively with one another and integrate seamlessly.
Research indicates that 77% of companies consider data management the foundation of their stack, but 61% admit they can’t utilize that data effectively.
For startups, data insights offer a massive opportunity.
If you start with tools that unify customer data early, you’ll build smarter campaigns and outpace bigger brands still stuck in silos.
Here are seven categories that help early-stage startups grow fast, work efficiently, and stay lean.
32% of marketers say their customer relationship management (CRM) tool is the core of their stack. Consider it the brain of your marketing strategies.
It stores everything about your existing and potential customers. Think contact details, email and call logs, chatbot conversation data, and purchasing behavior. This helps you track interactions, automate outreach, and maintain smooth communication.
For busy startups, a CRM keeps you on top of every deal and helps you move people through the funnel faster.
With automated communication and centralized customer information, you can build stronger relationships and close more sales.
For budget-friendly CRMs, try HubSpot, Zoho CRM, and Freshsales.
Automation rescues your startup team from a wide range of mundane manual marketing tasks. By choosing to automate business with AI,, your marketing team spends less time on admin and more time on high-impact work.
And it’s effective.
35% of marketers say marketing automation tools have the biggest impact on their digital strategies.
Here are the kinds of jobs that marketing automation software can do:
Just imagine the hours you’d save if these tasks ran themselves.
Here are some top automation tools to consider:
Need budget-friendly alternatives? Try Make for custom marketing automations and Manychat for social media automations.
Drive higher ROI, grow your audience and build more loyal customers with Campaigner’s advanced email marketing features.
Email is still a gold mine. According to Mailmodo, 76% of companies saw growth in email ROI last year, with 55% reporting increases of over 200%.
But what if you could boost ROI by doing more, faster (and with less spend) using email marketing tools?
You can. That’s why 34% of marketers plan to invest more in email automation.
An easy-to-use email tool lets you create branded newsletters, launch drip campaigns, and track what’s working. You can create landing pages to grow your email list, build email templates, and personalize at scale.
For email marketing tools that don’t break the bank, try MailChimp, Sender, or Moosend.
Social media management is the top area for new investment in 2025, and for good reason.
You can use these tools to discover trends, plan and post content, and track performance on social media platforms in one place.
Here are just a few of the key features:
Looking for affordable social tools? Try Buffer, Later, and Sprout Social.
Every marketer knows the importance of creating high-quality content to stand out. But this takes a significant time investment.
Enter AI.
AI is a helpful assistant during every step of the content creation process, from ideation to creation.
With an AI-powered tool for content and design, you can:
For instance, many founders now use AI headshot generators to create polished, consistent profile photos for LinkedIn, team pages, and pitch decks. They’re a fast, affordable way to present a cohesive brand image, with headshot costs that are often just a fraction of what professional photographers typically charge.
Currently, marketers use AI for:
Get started with marketing AI with tools like Canva Pro, Runway, and Jasper AI.
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Skip the tech stacks that are full of bells and whistles. And stick to tools that do the job, talk to each other, and grow with your business.
With a smart marketing tech stack, you’ll save time, improve your online presence, and keep from burning through your budget. (Just make sure to test them out first with trial accounts to see if they’re a good fit.)
The post A Marketing Stack to Take Your Startup from Zero to Scalable Without Burning Budget appeared first on StartupNation.
2025-09-08 16:15:56
Startups run on speed, iteration, and hustle. But in 2025, agentic AI is stepping in to handle much of the hustle — autonomously managing tasks, learning from feedback, and optimizing workflows in real time. The shift is subtle but seismic: if AI handles the technical, what remains distinctly human?
The answer isn’t code. It’s communication, empathy and imagination. Startups that once scaled by sheer technical brilliance must now lean into soft skills as their differentiator. In an era where everyone has access to the same smart tools, it’s how you lead, relate, and adapt that will set your startup apart.
Agentic AI systems can now ideate, schedule, troubleshoot, and even engage in iterative problem-solving. They’re autonomous enough to complete complex workflows without human nudging. That kind of intelligence is a startup founder’s dream — until it starts raising a bigger question: where do humans fit in?
While AI can write essays, thought leadership pieces and conduct research, what AI can’t do is build trust. It can’t decode subtle interpersonal tension in a strategy meeting or negotiate a partnership that hinges on empathy and persuasion. It can’t tell a compelling origin story that wins hearts. These are the moments where soft skills become irreplaceable.
The teams that will thrive in this new landscape won’t just be technically proficient. They’ll be emotionally attuned, ethically grounded, and endlessly curious. As AI takes over the routine and the logical, it’s the irrationally human stuff that becomes your competitive edge.
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Think of agentic AI as your most efficient team member: it never sleeps, always executes, and doesn’t complain. But it also lacks context, nuance, and the ability to handle ambiguity with grace. That’s where soft skills step in as the connective tissue of modern startup teams.
Suddenly, collaboration is no longer just human-to-human. It’s human-to-agent and agent-to-agent, with humans orchestrating these interactions to stay aligned. Technical communication is important, but emotional clarity is critical. You don’t just need engineers who can prompt an AI; you need communicators who can translate cross-functional needs into workflows the AI can actually support.
Leadership also changes. Managers aren’t just guiding people anymore — they’re designing environments where AI agents and human talent work in tandem. That requires soft skills at a higher resolution: empathy for both burnout and bot limitations, foresight to spot AI bias, and diplomacy when blending synthetic output with human decision-making. In a way, this makes the CTO position even more difficult, as it’s slowly becoming more “agentic orchestrator” than “project manager.”
With AI agents generating ideas, writing drafts, analyzing sentiment, and even crafting product pitches, it might seem like human communication is becoming less relevant. It’s the opposite. The more AI creates, the more humans need to guide, refine, and contextualize its output.
Founders, marketers, and team leads need to become exceptional communicators. Why? Because AI often outputs with technical accuracy but lacks emotional subtlety. It doesn’t understand cultural nuance, tone shifts, or the power of narrative like we do. A pitch deck written by an AI might hit all the points, but it won’t close the deal without human storytelling layered in.
Moreover, cross-functional communication becomes essential as AI takes over low-level coordination and supercharges growth. Teams need to align on high-level goals, intent, and ethics. Miscommunication, once a minor issue, can now cascade when amplified through autonomous systems. The startups that thrive will be the ones where clear, consistent, and empathetic communication is embedded into their culture from day one.
Startups have always prized speed, agility, and technical edge. But as agentic AI levels the playing field for technical execution, soft skills are where differentiation happens. Think about it: if any startup can now access world-class coding, data analysis, or customer segmentation via AI, then what makes your team unique? Your ability to collaborate. To tell a compelling story. To build relationships. To lead with integrity.
Soft skills, in this context, become a strategic superweapon. This also affects the hiring process, putting more emphasis on versatile operators who can show clearly on their resumes they have these kinds of attributes, as well as those with a unique background. Mere certificates and credentials won’t be sufficient soon enough.
Investors are noticing, too. A founder with emotional intelligence and strong interpersonal instincts is increasingly seen as a safer bet than one who only talks tech. Because when things go sideways (and they will), it’s not your AI agent that will talk down a furious customer or inspire a pivot. It’s your team, your leadership, and your ability to navigate ambiguity with grace.
So, how do you bake soft skills into your startup’s DNA? It starts with redefining what you value. Don’t just hire for technical skills; hire for adaptability, curiosity, and humility. Encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration where developers learn from designers, and marketers learn from engineers. Make space for reflective thinking, not just sprint planning.
Training matters too. Offer workshops not only on prompt engineering and AI ethics but also on conflict resolution, active listening, and inclusive leadership. Give your team the tools to engage with AI critically, but also with each other authentically.
Leadership needs to model this shift. It’s not enough to be AI-literate; founders must be willing to leverage AI to improve the human side of the org, but doing so in an emotionally conscious way. That means giving honest feedback with empathy. Owning mistakes. Encouraging psychological safety so team members feel safe taking risks, even with intelligent systems watching.
Ultimately, the goal isn’t to compete with AI — it’s to become the kind of startup where AI enhances what humans do best: care, connect, and create.
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Agentic AI will handle more tasks, faster and more efficiently than ever. But it won’t replace the human spirit that drives great startups. It can’t replace that intuitive moment when a founder connects with a customer. It can’t build camaraderie among a late-night team. It can’t inspire trust in a time of crisis.
As the frontier of AI continues to expand, the startups that succeed won’t just be the most tech-savvy. They’ll be the most human. The ones who see soft skills not as an afterthought, but as the engine of innovation in a world where machines do more of the work.
In the end, it won’t be the AI agent that builds your brand. It’ll be the people who use it with empathy, insight, and bold creativity.
The post Agentic AI Makes Soft Skills Essential for Future Startups appeared first on StartupNation.
2025-09-05 17:29:53
Like many other industries, market research relies heavily on data. However, compliance and data security have never been more imperative than now with the large amounts of data collected. Protecting data storage is not merely technical; it’s critical for establishing confidence and safeguarding the integrity of future research undertakings.
What could prove detrimental to a business is if proper care is not taken to safeguard your market research data, which falls prey to multiple security risks. Let’s discuss a few important issues that we hope you are already aware of:
Encryption is one of the measures that ensures that not just anybody can access one’s data. It is imperative to have strong encryption controls for sensitive data at rest (stored) and secure network encryption controls for data in transit (being transmitted).
Restricting data access to a few authenticated users minimizes the risk of exposure. Do not forget to authenticate users using methods like multi-factor authentication (MFA). Make sure to frequently modify user roles to ensure those actively using the account have permission to access the information rather than the account being easily misused.
To maintain data security in the face of hardware failures, cyberattacks, or any other impacts, regular data backups should be made. It is also wise to create a proper disaster recovery plan. Regularly conducted backups ensure that the data is present when there is a need and also checking if the systems backing up data were set up properly is vital.
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Identifying a secure storage solution that can protect sensitive information is tricky. In this section, we analyze key aspects that will help you make an informed decision.
With regards to picking out a solution, some features are absolutely crucial:
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Around the world, 137 of 194 countries have some type of data protection and privacy legislation. A vital part is safeguarding the organization’s data which is the requirement of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regarding collection, processing, and storage. Businesses that do not follow the laws stand to lose a maximum of 4% of their revenue.
Similarly, the California Consumer Privacy Act ( CCPA ) gives consumers certain rights relative to their personal information helping foster a free culture in the United States.
At the industry level, some laws become more critical. In the United States, the healthcare industry is mandated to follow The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which protects the privacy of a patient’s health information.
Gaining compliance is a process that requires an action plan with respect to data governance. Here are some actions you may wish to take to get there:
Clients need to be assured of trust and confidentiality, as well as compliance to a myriad of laws that make securing market research data and any sensitive information crucial.
Access control, regular backups, and encryption are some measures that can prevent security breaches or unauthorized access. Such practices go a long way in complying with data protection standards and also enhance trust and market credibility in advanced business research.
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The post Implementing Secure Data Storage Solutions for Market Research Data appeared first on StartupNation.
2025-09-03 16:12:51
Email marketing won’t work if your emails don’t land in the inbox. Use these five proven email deliverability tactics to start seeing more clicks … sometimes in just a few days.
Email is still a powerful marketing tool: more than half of the world’s population uses it. And unlike social media, email doesn’t throttle your reach based on an algorithm update and bury your message under trending posts. When you hit “send,” you’re speaking directly to your people.
But here’s the catch: email has its own set of rules. You build a sender reputation with mailbox providers – Google, Yahoo, or Outlook. With every email you send, that reputation grows or gets tarnished, depending on how you play the game.
It’s in your power to improve email deliverability
The good news? Building trust with mailbox providers is completely in your power. Email deliverability – the number of emails that reach the inbox – doesn’t depend on a mysterious force you can’t control. It’s driven by your behavior as a sender. From the quality of your list to how often you hit send, every choice you make leaves a mark on your email reputation.
Want to land in the inbox and make email work for you? Start with these five good habits to increase your email deliverability.
A high bounce rate is one of the worst stains on your sender reputation. If more than 2% of your emails bounce, mailbox providers take notice – could this be someone spamming random email addresses? You lose trust, so your future emails could end up in the spam folder.
Unfortunately, bounces are easy to rack up. People change their email addresses all the time, and professional contacts are even more likely to bounce. The average email list decays by 28% every year. On top of that, you have subscribers who’ve stopped engaging with your emails.
To keep your bounce rate low and help your emails reach the inbox, scrub those outdated and inactive contacts. An email verification service does it quickly and accurately – and with automation, you can validate your list regularly without much effort.
If you send mass emails every day, you must authenticate them. Major mailbox providers – like Google and Yahoo – now require email authentication to accept your emails.
What is email authentication? It’s a set of protocols – DKIM, SPF, and DMARC – that verify whether an email comes, indeed, from your company and not an impersonator. Adding this extra check helps your messages make it past spam filters.
Once you set it up, email authentication requires little ongoing maintenance. If you’re unsure where to start, your email platform or IT team can help. There’s also no shortage of services that can make authentication easy for you – and protect your email deliverability.
Another way to build or improve your reputation is by warming up your sending IP and domain – especially if you’re just starting out or took a break and resumed emailing. Instead of sending thousands of emails at once, try to increase your volume gradually. This helps you build positive engagement, which means you slowly start earning your place in people’s inboxes.
You can warm up your domain manually by sending emails to small groups of engaged subscribers. If you want more control in ramping up your email volume, you can use an email warmup tool that automates the process.
Keep sending emails regularly. Not only does it keep your IP address and domain warm, it also makes it easy for people to remember you.
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Few things hurt your email deliverability more than getting reported as spam. For mailbox providers, it’s one of the biggest red flags – a clear signal that people don’t want your emails. To maintain trust, keep your spam complaint rate under 0.3% (that’s no more than three reports for every 100 emails you send).
Staying under the 0.3% threshold is easy if you send emails responsibly:
Also, don’t bombard your subscribers with emails – some will mark your message as spam just to stop hearing from you.
Of course, you want engagement for your emails – the more people click through, the higher your conversion rate. But healthy engagement rates also play a role in your email deliverability. Opens, clicks, replies, and forwards are all positive signals. They tell mailbox providers your content is worthy, so your chances of landing in the inbox go up.
To get those clicks, segment your list and send each group hyper-relevant emails. Think behavior-based triggers and personalized emails that speak to what they most care about. And don’t ghost your list. Sending emails regularly helps maintain a strong reputation and enhances brand awareness.
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Bonus email deliverability tips to keep your business in the inbox
Once you’ve nailed the basics – keeping your list healthy, authenticating your emails, warming up your domain, and setting up a sending schedule – here are a few more tips that can give your email deliverability a boost:
They say the money’s in the list. However, your list won’t earn you anything if your emails end up in the spam folder. To set yourself up for success, adopt these habits and continue to send emails people love and engage with.
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The post 5 Email Deliverability Tips to Help You Land More Sales appeared first on StartupNation.
2025-09-03 13:45:36
The next $10,000 grant period from Verizon Small Business Digital Ready awaits around the corner, but the real value of Digital Ready lies in play right here and now.
The program is humming in September with a long list of benefits. Many of Digital Ready’s tools and resources, like online courses, are available immediately, on demand.
Digital Ready virtual events and community networking gatherings, meanwhile, take place on a regular schedule. See this month’s lineup below.
The program is free and easy to join. So, register here to get started.
5 ways to increase your online visibility
Charge what you are worth
Building genuine business relationships
Power in partnership: Winning contract opportunities through strategic business alliances
Website usability review
To register for the program, click this link.
To find an online event, click this link.
To find an online course, click this link.
Small business chat: Communication and Culture, LLC, Hortiki Plants
What can a CRM do for your business?
Using SWOT analysis to find your sweet spot
Profit selling
The negotiator’s edge: Winning across personality types
Founder SWOT
From creating personas to using them
Peer to peer check-in: Two sessions in one day
AI and automations for the win
Small business chat: Beauty Box Philly, Anghelo’s Suit and Tux
Simplifying small business cybersecurity: Easy habits to protect your business
E.L.E.V.A.T.E. from burnout to optimal well-being
To register for the program, click this link.
To find an online event, click this link.
To find an online course, click this link.
Peer to Peer Check-in Series: A dynamic interactive on-going series, designed to help small businesses stay on track and break through roadblocks. Connect with a community of like-minded individuals bi-weekly in either the morning and/or the evening sessions to share your goals, receive guidance and encouragement from your fellow Digital Ready small business peers.
What can you expect to take away from a peer to peer review?
The post Free Events and Digital Courses to Drive Your Business: The September Lineup appeared first on StartupNation.
