The family-run batting glove brand that MLB players are wearing

Howdy y'all. Welcome to The Big Idea presented by Block Advisors built by H&R Block. I'm Elizabeth Gore, co-founder and president of Hello Alice. So what is between the spreadsheets this week in Small business? A new holiday shopping forecast finds that 29% of consumers plan to use AI to research gifts, compare prices, and stay on budget, but it gets kind of funny because there's a twist. 64% say.That they're prioritizing nostalgic, screen-free, anything that can bring them back to the present. So especially among Gen Z, 78% of them are looking for the super interesting. So shoppers may use cutting edge technology to find board games and books and anything to get their family off the couch, which I completely understand. So basically they're asking a robot how to spend less time with robots. Super interesting for small business owners, the holiday.Season starts now y'all. This is your number one time for receipts. So make sure your product descriptions, prices, shipping deadlines, and return policies are easy for both shoppers and their AI tools to understand. So, another thing you can do is think about creating gift bundles around the experience, not just a discount. There's a lot you can do. So y'all don't wait till Black Friday to get organized. People are starting to plan their shopping way before, and this is your most important time. So.Don't wait to saddle that horse after people have already jumped on, OK? Focus now let's cowboy up with a founder who turned a teenager's batting glove dilemma into an incredibly successful business for baseball, hockey, softball, you name it. Let's introduce you to Bear Maer. Bear Mayer is the founder and CEO of Bruce Bolt, the premium batting glove company he started that's based in Austin, Texas, another great Texas company. It began because Bear's batting clubs kept falling apart and as.Somebody who has coached Little League for a long time, I don't like rebuying equipment. Now, he needed gas money for a 1993 Land Cruiser named Jennifer. His father gave him two choices get a job or start a company. That sounds like my dad. Today, Bruce Bolt gloves are worn by dozens of Major League Baseball players, including All-Stars, batting champions, and Gold Glove winners. Welcome, Bear to the show. Bear, welcome to the Big Idea.

Thank you for having me

and welcome.I'm welcoming that mustache as well. Is this, is this new or is this been, been with

you? I've had it in the past, um, and I brought it back recently, a little bit of superstition on my side, you know. Well, I grew up playing baseball, so I've always been superstitious, but, um, I, uh, went to the Ohio State Texas game. I'm a big Ohio State fan. Last year in Columbus, I had a mustache and we beat Texas, so I figured I had to have a mustache again to beat Texas. Unfortunately, it didn't go my way this year,

but it didn't.I will, I will. That's interesting that you're an Ohio fan in Austin.

Yeah, I born and raised Buckeye. My mom went to school there. I was born in Columbus. Um, all my family's from Ohio, so it's just couldn't really outrun it. Um,

were you at the stadium?

I was, I was

crap. I, I mean that, so you're OK because I'm an Aggie, right? I went to Texas A&M, so I was on the Ohio side.Of this deal. You're welcome. So my condolences. Let's just start there, but it was an incredible sportingevent.

It, it was really good. It was, uh, not running back for Texas, you know. Yeah,

well, it's so good to meet you, and, um, I love baseball. Like a coach, um, the little guys, and I think it's, it's just the beating heart of America andI, I have to know though, most, uh, what, 15 year olds, they're kind of picking their nose at that time and you started a business. Tell me the history.

It wasn't a plan of mine, um, until I got my first truck. It was actually a '93 Land Cruiser.

Oh, tell me you still have

that. I wish I did. I wish I did. I would still have her to this day if it wasn't for how much she broke down. It was uh.It was a lot. It was, maybe,

maybe when you, when you go public with your company, you can find her,

hopefully, you know, maybe at some point, but started when I got that Land Cruiser and, um, I spent all my money on it. So, you know, I figured my dad would cover me for gas, you know, going forward, and he just, he told me not a chance, go figure out how to get a job or start a company.And with how much I was, you know, with my full day at school and then baseball practice afterwards and then having to drive home and getting back around 8 p.m., I really didn't, I didn't have the time to go and get a job. So next step was, uh, start a company. So I went, you know, I walked up to my dad and he's been an entrepreneur his whole life, and I was just like, hey, what's, what's step one, you know.Step one is obviously,

by the way, good question, yeah,

so step one, he was like you gotta come up with your idea. So he, you know, he sent me off to go and figure out an idea. It was, you know, all great companies, um, fix a problem that everyone has.And so to me that problem was batting gloves, um, and I wanted to make a, most batting gloves were and still are synthetic leather. They're more of an afterthought to companies than the first thought. I wanted it to be my first thought. I wanted to make a longer lasting, better fitting.Performing glove. So I just, I kind of got to work on what are the best materials, what's the, you know, making this glove fit the best it can. I didn't want it to just be something you're putting on your hand. It is a piece of equipment and it's an important part to your game. So I really wanted to make sure this was something thatYou could see the difference in. We got started from there, got in contact with a factory through a family friend who put us in contact with Jeff Breznick, who's the CEO of Nakona. He put us in contact with the factory, and from there it was just, you know, sending them different ideas and getting samples back. No,

wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You just went from step 1 to 50. I got, I gotta know, like, did you go back and pitch your dad and say, OK.It's baseball gloves. Like, what was that

conversation? I went back to him. I said it's batting gloves. He, you know, he expected me to come back with, Hey, I'm gonna go mow lawns, or I'm gonna go and I'm gonna go sell cookies or something. I don't know. And I came back to him with this full-fledged like.It's a, it's a company, it's a product. And um I think that took him by surprise, butThat's, uh, he's got a background in hockey. He started a hockey company in 2001 called Smart Hockey. Um, so he's, he's got a background in it, and he was able to kind of, he was able to give me direction on, OK, well, here's your next step. Go and find a factory, you know, and go and find this person, go find that person, andIt was a lot of like, here's the direction. Now you have to figure it out, um, which as a 16 year old is not the easiest thing in the world, but it, it makes you grow up and learn, learn quicker and I'm definitely, I'm definitely thankful for him, not just doing it for me, but telling me how to do it and making me do it.

Absolutely. So, um,I was, I almost said struck, which is hilarious because it was struck by lightning. You have to tell us the Bruce Bolt story because it's almost unbelievable. It's like the Lord wanted to take him, but he said no.

Yeah, he, yeah, so, um, Bruce Bolt, it was actually funny enough, it, it took us a while to land on that name. That's a whole another story. But when we eventually did get to the point where we landed on it, my grandpa, his name is Bruce. Um, he's been a huge part of my life just growing.Up. He now lives in Austin, Texas, just down the road from me, uh, which is awesome. Get to see him basically every day, but my dad's name is also Bruce and my middle name's Bruce. So it's, it's a name that's been passed down, and, um, my grandpa has been struck by lightning twice, um, which is insane. I don't. I'm sure, I'm sure there's other people out there that have, but I don't know him, and I'm praying that there aren't other people that have.Um, but yeah, so he's, uh, Bruce. Bruce is a family name, and Grandpa Bruce has been struck by lightning twice. And that's how we landed on Bruce Bolt. It's a memorable name. It's hard to forget, and it's got a great story

with it. Well, and all I can, my one of my favorite movies of all time is The Natural, right? The baseball movie and the lightning scene in that one. And oh my gosh, there's so much.With this, it's incredible. Does he get nervous when it rains?

I don'tthink so. I don't think he does. I'll tell you, he'd get nervous if he was on a golf course and it started raining. Both times he was struck was on a golf course. No,

this is getting crazier by the minute.

Yeah, so both times on the golf

course, I think I'd give up that sport. I, I.It's just crazy. OK, let's go back to, to America's pastimes. So you got this idea, your, your dad's backing you up, you're, you, but you, you suddenly got to jump into the supply chain and samples, and how did you do that while going to school?

It wasn't easy, uh, but you know, I.It probably shouldn't have done this, but a lot of my day in school, you know, you got your computer open, you should be working on history or math. I had Photoshop open or my email open, going back and forth with people or doing different designs. Um, and then, you know, I'd go through baseball practice at the end of the day.I'd usually wait about an hour after baseball practice to head home to avoid traffic. So I'd spend that time sitting outside on my laptop, going back and forth even more with the factory and doing even more designs andSo that was, that kind of turned into my day every day until eventually 18 prototypes later or samples later, 18. 1st sale was in, I believe, I wanna say March of 2018 was the first sale when I finally got to a point where I felt happy with what I had. Those months leading up to that point was a lot of, a lot of putting the head down, probably missing out on some homework that I should have been doing, a couple of bad test grades coming back, butUm, yeah, that's, that's how that went.

You know, 18 choices, you finally came down to the 1, but did you test that with other people? Did you, I mean, did you get out on the baseball field and slide, and what did you do? Yeah,

so as I started having samples roll in, um, I definitely utilized all the guys I played with, all my friends who played at other schools. Um, a good buddy of mine who actually still works with me to this day, he was the first guy to test him. He was the first guy to hit a home run in him.Um, he gave a lot of the feedback just for use, you know, trying to test, does it last longer, does it fit better, that side of it. Um, but then when you look at the fit better, feel better, that side of it, I was talking to, I had a coach growing up who's actually a physical therapist, um, chiropractor whoI think to get to that point, you, you got to go through the kinesiology and you learn a lot about every part of the body, but I specifically went and asked him about the hand. I was like, hey, what can I know about the hand to make this glove fit, feel, and perform better? And we really kind of got down toLittle things that most of these other companies weren't considering, um, such as like the conical shape of your finger, the articulation of your wrist, different parts that would kind of seem obvious when you say them out loud, you know, like, you don't want to have a seam right across the bottom of your hand because that'll, that's just more of a wear point, right? Cause you're putting direct pressure on that when your wrist flexes. But a lot of people don't think of that.Um, the conical shape of your finger, if you make the, if you make the shape of the glove actually go with your finger rather than just straight up, it has a better fit and a better feel to it. Um, so just little things like that that.I wanted to take into account to, like I said, make this glove feel and perform a little bit better.

Amazing, man. And the other thing I'm so curious about is, is cost. I mean, how did you decide the pricing? The,

the pricing was really decided based on what our pricing was getting this glove from factory to factory to front door. Yeah, our glove is not, as you can imagine, we're using the most premium materials available on the market, um, for both.For both baseball and golf, and now moving into football where everything that we do is premium. We don't want to put something out that we don't see as being the best. Um, so using those premium materials obviously come with a cost and so our pricing was to.Basically it basically came down to factory to front door based on premiummaterial.

I love it. And, and you started, I mean, you had one of your first pro players, right? Harrison coming in 2020. Was that, tell me that because that's, that's a hard get, right? You've got these guys.Every brand in the world is courting them, sending them free shit all the time. I mean, how did you, how did you connect with him and then how did that evolve into the MLB?

So a lot of our guys are actually pretty unique stories, um, the way that we got them on board, but Harrison being the first one, you know, we were.We didn't actually start to hockey stick up is the way I'll put it, until 2020 when Whistle Media released a video on Bruce Bolt and myself. But Harrison, I don't know if he saw the video or what. I somehow I think a pair of our gloves ended up on his front door from one of his coaches or something. One of his prior coaches got him a pair and was like, hey, you gotta check these out. AndHarrison put them on is the story he told me is he put them on. He's like, these things are incredible. He actually received a pair of our long cuff, which was our original design, you know, you've got the short cuff batting glove, and then our long cuff, which is a double strap system that extends further down your wrist, gives you a little bit more support, and just overall, for me at least, and I think for a lot of other players, makes you feel a little bit more confident, a little bit sturdier at the plate. Um, but Harrison received those.And I guess he just loved the design. He loved the double strap system, and he just felt.He felt a little bit more confidence with them on is also another way that he puts it. It's just the feel of them is so much different than a normal batting glove, and I think Harrison recognized that immediately.

How didyou find out about him getting the gloves?

So I think, I think it was his coach who gave them to him, then called us up, you know, at the time, my dad and I were also both customer service, right? So we're phone calls every day. It's

a typical new company, right? You're doing

everything. So we're answering these phone calls every day. His coach calls him and he's like, hey.My name's, you know, my name is blank and blank. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm one of Harrison Bader's coaches from when he grew up. I gave Harrison some of your gloves, and he loves them. He would love to speak to you about doing a deal with your company, um, and so two days later, here's this 18-year-old kid who's in high school who, whose dream is to play in the big leagues talking to Harrison Bader outside of a training facility, so.Um, it was, it was incredible. And, uh, it's definitely something that I'll never forget. And I'll never forget any interaction that I've had with any of the guys, but that being the first one definitely holds a specialplace.

You know, I love that story. I mean, I mean, I'm sure y'all think about this at your company all the time, but all these, where you actually go in, you pay someone an influencer, right? We're in this influencer culture, will you put this on? Will you wear this for a second?And you know, I think we're all drowning in the lack of authenticity, right? And here is the opposite. He puts it on and literally uses the word confidence, which is everything in baseball. It's a mental game, right?And, you know, comes out and approaches you. I mean, that, that is, uh, that is awesome. And how did you then, how did that move into more players, more customers, and so on?

So from there, you know, Harrison started wearing them. We put a deal together, put a contract in place. We ended up, you know, he, he has a signature glove with us. He was the first one to get a signature series glove, and I think as he started wearing that, more players took notice, um.Actually, funny enough, Brandon Nimmo was our 2nd guy. He found out he didn't even reach out to us. His equipment manager reached out to us because he had hurt his hand, and we were the only batting glove on the market that had padding where his injury was. So that's why Brandon Nimmo started wearing dude.So, yeah, and which was incredible as well. So first we get Harrison Bader's old coach knocking at our door, and then we get the New York Mets calling us saying we need a pair of gloves for Brandon Nimmo. Um, and so I think it was a, it was kind of just aFor the first probably 8 to 10 guys, it was actually them coming to us and not us going to them just because we were so small at the time and it was really just me, my dad and my mom. We weren't out here trying to go and be like, hey, let us pay you, let us pay you. Is, is

the qualityof your product is what sold it, and I think a lot of people can learn from you of get the product right first, right? I mean, may, I mean, everything you've described with, with the gloves and how you built them and the confidence andEven pain management and you know, and players now injuries are, are just such a tough part of the game, right? And having good equipment is essential. So then you go from, from you and your dad to your mom and then suddenly you start hiring people and growing. I mean, what, what have been some of your growingpains?

So I'll say one of our big, our big growing pains that we're seeing.Not really a pain either, but one of the things that we've seen recently that we're kind of adjusting to is being a small family business, you know, when we first started going into wholesale, um, say with like DSG for example, we were more transactional about it than anything. It was more of like a, hey, you want to sell our gloves? OK, here it is, like it, you know, that was it.Now as we grow larger, we're starting to realize and view these more as like this is a partnership, not, not just a transaction and kind ofWe're seeing the fact that we do need to do these activations with DSG. We do have to do these activations with Perfect Game, which is one of our big ones, um, that we work with in the baseball space and just kind of learning that there's more to it than just our glove is in that store. WeNeed to be a partner, not just another product and vice versa.

And by the way, I love that you're in women's sports too. I, I think women's sports is on the rise, and, you know, you're, I was watching your awesome focus on softball on your Instagram and, um, and sometimes I'm shocked that folks leave out half the population with their gear.

Yeah, absolutely, um.Softball was one of those things a couple of years ago, you know, I've always, being a baseball player, I've always been around softball and softball players, friends with them in high school. It's, it's, it's, we, we played the same sport essentially, right? And so, when you would go into DSG and some of these other, and just looking online, um, there wasn't a lot of focus in those areas, and it's, and, and there should be, right? And so,And just with the overall growth of softball in the last couple of years, I mean, the Women's College World Series is just as big, if not bigger than the men's College World Series. And it's such a fast-paced, fun game to watch. And so,I wanted to make sure that it was something we in internally as a team, we wanted to make sure that we knew or that softball knew that we were focused on them as well as baseball and not just like, hey, here's a, here's our baseball product, we're also going to market it to you. So we definitely wanted to make sure that it was known that we don't just see softball as, you know, the girl version of baseball. Softball is.Its own sport and we want to make sure that they know that we, we care about them just as much.

That's badass, man. Um, how did you decide, you know, expansion can be awesome and exciting, but also too soon, too late, and, you know, now with baseball, then softball and now hockey, football, did you have to meet a certain metric with the company to say, OK, we have the capacity and the funding.To now go into a totally different market, how did you make that decision?

So if, if I'm being truthful,

I feellike I'm really gonna love this answer whatever else come out of that mustache,

yeah, um, if I'm being truthful with the decision making, like, absolutely you need, you need to, we did need to see success in the area we were in, which was softball and baseball, to then go in, move into the next sport and move into the next sport and moving into the next, but at the end of the day, you know, it was more so.We are a, we're a glove company and I love sports. My dad loves sports. Everybody in the company loves sports. We want to see ourselves take over different areas. So as much as yes, the success in one area leads to going into the next, it was also more of just like a, hey, let's, you know, people are asking for golf gloves. Let's give you a golf glove. People are asking for a football.Glove. Let's go do football. And thankfully, with, with making those decisions, we have seen success in every area that we've been, you know, we're very blessed to say that. I'd be lying if I said, if I didn't say a little bit of it was, you know, we love sports and we just want to be in awe. Yeah,

LFG, man. I mean, that Yogi Berra quote is it um.If you can't imitate him, don't copy him, right? So it's like, let's just go. I love it. And what, what's your, what is your aspiration? I mean.10 years from now, where, where are we at with Bruce Bolt? We

sat down as a company and we're like, OK, where do we want to go with this? Are we gonna grow Bruce Bolt into an all-around baseball brand? Are we gonna do everything within baseball? Are we gonna, or right now we have a batting glove, we have a softball glove, we have a golf glove. We are working on a football glove.There's a, there's a pattern here. Everything is about the hands, right? We want to be the best glove in every sport we enter as a multi-sport brand. I want to be the most premium glove that you can get on the market in every sport that we go into. So, you know, softball and baseball, I'd say we're there. I'd say we are the most premium glove in that market. Golf has been growing like crazy.And it's extremely exciting to watch, and I wish I was better at it. And then football we're about to enter into on October 12th, and I'm extremely excited to see where that goes. So far, the support for it has been.It has been great. Um, we just made our initial launch post the other day. And, um, just seeing everybody's reaction to Bruce Bol going to football has been incredible. But I'd say my goal in 5 to 10 years is to be the most premium glove, multi-sport brand that, that, that you can get. And I'd also love, which this one, this is not a new one, butWe are working on making our apparel a little bit more elevated, um, in terms of we want to be, we wanna be, we don't just want to be a brand that has apparel, we want to be a multi-sport glove brand and apparel brand and so that's something we've been working really hard on. We have a great team actually led up by my sister. Um,

yes, everybody's getting in

this we, we've really made it.Family, uh,

bringing you're like the, uh, the shitt's creek of baseball here. I love it.

But yeah, so apparel is a big, a big next step for us as well. But I'd say very long-winded answer. That's, that's my goal in the next 5

to 10. I love it. I want you to meet the founder of Feathery. Her last name is Cornold, and, uh, she's an all women's apparel brand for golf.And she started the same age as you, which is kind of cool. Yeah, y'all are taking over. I love it. I love it. We love to talk about mistakes on this show and we call them our dirty unicorns, and I'm, I'm wondering if you could share with us one of your dirty unicorns.

I, I kind of already said it, so I'll, I'll, I'll bring up another one as well, but I think.In the beginning with it being a family brand and kind of not utilize, making it more of a transactional relationship with our, with our wholesalers rather than a partnership, I'd say is one of those kind of learning lessons, mistakes that we learned from.

So let's talk about that for a minute. So, um, I don't think people realize, well, I think they did during COVID, that your, your supply chain and your manufacturing partners are.And then your distribution partners, right? Both sides of your sandwich are critical, absolutely critical. And, you know, what I saw and when all those supply chain hairiness, and it's still going both on both sides of the sandwich was going on, is the folks that had strong relationships, real relationships, not just paper, made it through.And got prioritized and so tell me, tell me why that's so important and, and, you know, learning off that dirty unicorn, that mistake. Why, why is it important toyou?

I think relationships are some of the most important things that.You can have just life in general, business as well. Um, one of the things that I learned early and has been repeated to me over and over again, not only by my dad, but others that I've spoken to, is that it's, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Um, you can know as much as you want, but without having a relationship, relationships will take you to the next step, almost all the time, right? Like,I wouldn't have been able to start Bruce Bolt without having that family relationship I had that got me to Jeff Breznick that then got me to the factory we now have who creates our batting gloves. And so I think that right there in itself is.The main, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Like I, I can know everything I want about leather, but if I don't have access to it, I can't do anything with that. That's very true. So I think, I think relationships are always going to be important, and I think it's, uh, it rings true in exactly what you said, you know, people struggling versus people being put to the front of the line, and, um, it's one of those things where we've created a great relationship with our factory. We've created great relationships with everybody we work with.And um it's extremely important to have that, not just a business connection, butThat relationship outside of the business.

So absolutely. Speaking of relationships, um, y'all are sitting around Thanksgiving. Do you have a rule where you have to stop talking about business, or, or do you just let her fly? I'm so curious.

It basically just flies, you know, we, we haven't gotten to the point where we have to make a rule yet. Um, I think there's, there's enough personalities at, uh, at our Thanksgiving, uh, table thatThere's we find enough to talk about, but it always gets brought back to, it always gets in.And the funny thing about it is that it's not like we're, it doesn't feel like you're talking about business when we talk about it, though. We're talking about something that we're all passionate about and love and everybody who's sitting at the table does want to talk about it. It's not, it's not one of those things it's like, oh gosh, here they go about Bruce Bolt again. It's like, OK, let'swhat the next steps are. So

that's beautiful.

We haven't had to make that rule yet.

That's good and hopefully you never will. So I, I'm curious about if, if there is an artifact or an original skew or something that physically.Um, embodies your journey thusfar.

I have the original, not with me, but some of the original gloves that we made. They're like a tan color with accents like red, navy, royal, you name it. We called that our natural series, and that's actually um the 3rd glove, I guess, that I ever made outside of just a white glove and a black glove. And the purpose for that glove was very early on, my dad told me there's 2 goals when starting a company.You want to be profitable, but then once you're profitable, you want to be able to give back to those around you. And so the purpose of that natural series glove was to exactly that, be able to give back to those around. And we started kind of like that, the shoe company Tom's back in the day where if you bought a pair, they donate a pair. We did the same thing. We did get it, get a pair, get a pair founder.Yes, exactly. So we did get a pair, give a pair, where for every pair of the natural series gloves that were bought, we donated a pair to an organization such as RBI Austin, who we still work with to this day, which is a nonprofit organization for underprivileged children to get to go and play baseball. And, um, so for every pair that was bought, we would donate a pair to the organization, and we did that for the longest time.Until eventually we got to the point where we were selling so many pairs, it was hard to give that many pairs. So we found new ways to kind of work with RBI Austin in, in more meaningful ways as well too. That pair, those gloves really encapsulate who we are as a company and how we'veOur values and what we've grown this off of and it's um you know yeah it's important it's important to make a profit it's important to grow, but it's also important to give back to where you're from and the people.

Well, it's clear that um you have great value.that have been instilled in you. Speaking of giving back on this show, we'd love to shout out small businesses. Um, and do you have one that, that you love that, that means a lot toyou?

I've got a couple of buddies in Austin with me. Um, I grew up playing baseball with them.Um, all the way through high school, but they just started recently, uh, a hat company called, uh, called Kalihi Hat Co. um, so they're, uh, you know, they're, they're out there doing their thing. They're, uh,

what

kind of hats? So right now they've got, uh, it'sIt's just like a classic day to day, uh, flat brim hat with a little rope hat, um, khalihi, I believe what it, it's, it's a type of rock, I believe, um, and so they got Khalihihatco, uh, born from stone, uh, which I think is a pretty, which I think is a pretty cool little, uh, little saying they got to go with it. But yeah, shout out to those guys, Khalihi Hatco,

right on. Well, I am thrilled to meet you, and you know, I feel like.The precision, the precision that you've put into this is beautiful and all these awesome athletes you're helping, and I have a thank you quote for you. I love giving thank you quotes, um, and it had to be in baseball, so, um, it's from Billy Bean from Moneyball and it says, uh, how can you not be romantic about baseball?So I appreciate you, yeah, right, I mean, and your folks and your family and your grandpa and um thank you for coming on the Big Idea and teaching us about how you're growing this business and uh let's play ball, man.

Absolutely, thank you for having me. Thanks,

bud.Welcome back to The Big Idea presented by Block Advisors built by H&R Block.All right y'all, let's take a quick tax break. If you own a small business, you probably spent way more time thinking about cash flow and customers than about your own retirement. I am guilty as charged. Luckily there are a few retirement plans built specifically for small business owners and self-employed folks, and today we're gonna talk about three of those big ones. First up, the simplified Employee pension, or SEPIRA.This one's about as easy as retirement plans get, thank the Lord. The SEP IRA works for businesses of any size, and it's especially popular with small employers and the self-employed. The biggest perk is flexibility. You can adjust how much you contribute each year based on how your business is doing. So if you want something simple and with minimal paperwork, this is a great place to start. Another great retirement plan is the simple IRA or the.Savings incentive match plan for employees. This one's for small employers, folks with around 100 employees or fewer. Their employees can contribute it through payroll deductions, and as an employer, you are required to either match their contributions or kick in a fixed amount. The simple IRA is a nice middle ground. It provides a real benefit for your team without a ton of administrative headaches on your end. And by the way y'all, it's a great recruiting tool, uh, that we've used a lot.Finally, there's the solo 401k which is exactly what it sounds like if you're self-employed and don't have any employees other than maybe a spouse, this might be your most powerful option. You can contribute as an employee based on your earned income and as the employer based on your business profits. That can add up to serious retirement savings as your business grows. Now the trade-off, a little more paperwork, but don't let that get away from you. So how do you actually.So here's some questions to ask yourself. Do you have employees? What's your budget and cash flow like? How much administrative work are you willing to take on? What are your long term goals? Now, your answers to those will give you a right plan towards your future. And I will tell y'all, I know we all wait to pay ourselves, we all wait to give ourselves retirement, but do this now, put a little bit away for a long term future. I want you drinking tequila on a beach someday. So one thing worth keeping in mind.These plans are just about your future. Retirement contributions can lower your taxable income right now. And if you're setting up a new plan for your employees, you may even qualify for a startup tax credit. So big benefits here. The bottom line here is whether it's a SAP IRA, a simple IRA, or a solo 401k, or is it something else entirely, getting started is the most important step. So talk to your trusted tax or financial.Professional who can help you figure this out, y'all don't make this decision on your own. Talk to the experts because laws change quickly and what might have been good yesterday will be different tomorrow. So that's all for this week, y'all. Thanks again to Bear Mayer for joining me this week and thanks to all of you for tuning in. I'll see you next time with more stories and insights to help your small business succeed. Until then, come say hi to me in any of my socials at Elizabeth Gore USA and as my grandma always said, hold your head up high and give them hell.