July 6th, 2010
How would you feel if your sports software provider told you one or more of the following things?
- We don’t know anything about software but we hear this sports software is one way you can make some money.
- We are in debt up to our eye balls so we’ve got to find every way possible to move money from your bank account to ours
- Support is for wimps – if people need support they can search our FAQ pages
- Registration fees of $5, $6, $7 or more are industry standard, you can’t find anything better.
- Credit card fee’s are just a fact of life at 3.5% and way beyond
- It’s you club, league or sports organization but we still get to advertise on your sites, registration pages and so on
- Sure, we’ve got scheduling software… as long as you don’t have more than 8 – 16 team in your organization we’ll all be just fine
- Upgrades are over rated, we upgrade every 3-5 years because the sports software business just doesn’t change that often
- Mac doesn’t matter; everyone knows that most of the sports world uses PC’s don’t they?
- Everybody requires a contract of 2-5 years
- We hold your money for two weeks or longer because we’re not sure if you’ll have charge-backs
- If you find the software hard to use it’s because you just are trying hard enough…
Would you believe it if I told you that this list is actually fairly short?
Bonzi sports software is NOTHING like the list above in fact we are generally the exact opposite;
- Bonzi is a software development organization that ONLY develops sports software; those who know software well love the way we do it for our customers.
- Bonzi has never had any debt so we can always do the right thing for our customers firs and be the lowest overall cost in the sports software industry
- Our customers who previously used our competitors software tell us loudly that Bonzi has the best and most diverse support in the entire industry
- Our registration fees are the lowest that we know of given what we offer
- Bonzi has the lowest credit card fee’s of any sports software provider; we are fairly certain you can’t find any fees lower
- It’s your sports software and we let you do your own fund raising and advertising on it
- Our scheduling software can handle any combination of teams and venues – it really has no limits
- Bonzi sports software is continually updated – one of our most recent upgrades was the addition of a fully featured “content management” system
- Bonzi is compatible with Mac, iPhone and most browsers
- Bonzi requires no contract
- Bonzi puts your money in your bank account as soon as the transaction clears the bank; usually the next day.
- Bonzi is very, very easy for anyone to use
We think that the devil is in the details when it comes to sports software – we invite you to ask us any and all of the hard questions; we are confident you’ll like the answers.
Tags: Bonzi sports software, contracts, making decisions, online registration, sports registration, Sports software
Posted in Cost of Free, Costs, How to Choose, Parents Win | No Comments »
July 1st, 2010
Parents are the key enabler to kids regular participation in any sport such as soccer, football, baseball, lacrosse, etc.
Kids can’t pay the fee’s, arrange the transportation, juggle the competing demands of a family’s schedule and all the other things that have to come together for a kid to participate in a sport.
Anymore it seems more and more unusual that only one parent in a two parent household can stay home and stay on top of all the logistics to make it happen. in many and maybe most families both parents work and depending on the size of the city or the nature of the work both parents are lucky to get home by dinner time let alone time to get a child a snack, make sure they have everything they need and get them off to practice or a game.
Today it seems that there are more than a few single parent households where the work must come first because it is the only source of income and there is no easy safety net if traffic is bad one day or the boss insists on work into the evening on the day of the big game or the crucial practice (aren’t they all?).
Despite all these challenges parents do their level best, in my observation, to do what it takes to get and keep their kids in sports simply because it is so central to a happy, healthy and well adjusted upbringing in this world. Ask many adults what their fondest memories of growing up were and I’ll bet a role in sports is one of the top three of the fondest memories.
So what’s the point? The point is that we all benefit from happy, healthy and well adjusted kids no matter our age or circumstances. These kids are our nations and the worlds future. This blog post is simply a plea for us all to look around and pitch in when we can to help each other get as many kids into sports as possible. I can’t do anything significant about the national debt, terrorists, or the price of beans in Beirut… but I can keep my eyes open and be sensitive enough to volunteer to provide a ride, give a word of encouragement, or volunteer my logistical support to help out a coach so that the most kids possible get to participate.
Bonzi sports software’s role is simple; we make it easy, fun and very, very affordable. We know that the harder it gets for parents and all the other caring folks who selflessly give to support kids participation the fewer kids get to play. Bonzi sports software can only make the sports registration, scheduling, coach background checking, rostering, and websites easy, fun and affordable… but we think that’s a lot. Beyond that it’s the coaches, volunteers and those dedicated parents who put their plans in second place in favor of the future of their kids.
Tags: accomplishment, Bonzi sports software, leadership, Little league baseball, sports registration, sports schedule software, Sports software, youth sports software
Posted in Acknowlegement, Coaching, Developing Kids, Motivation, Parents Win | No Comments »
June 29th, 2010
My 17 year old son is cleaning out his bedroom to prepare for a busy summer and to be ready to hit the ground running for his senior year in high school. This whole process reminded me of the new movie Toy Story 3 where the boy is getting ready to move away from home and go to college. My son and the Toy Story 3 boy were both at the beginning of transitions and both were packing up the remnants of the past in preparation for the future.
Having seen the Toy Story 3 movie tuned my awareness up for boxes marked “Store in Attic” and “Give Away”. I noticed my son too had a box marked “Store in Attic”… I just had to peak to see what prize had escaped the trip to Goodwill and was getting stored for a shot at another day. To my surprise a significant portion of those things being saved for the future was his collection of “participation” trophy’s from kindergarten on. Alas, my son has never been nor really wanted to be a competitor; he was just out to have fun and be part of the team. Still the recognition represented by the trophy must have meant something to him.
In the science of motivation we know that recognition is a powerful motivator for people to try harder, work harder and to have vastly more persistence than is likely without recognition. For many a kid the recognition that comes from a coach, other parents and a $2 trophy is all the recognition that they are likely to get in life. To my way of thinking this is one of the foundational values that make youth sports so very, very important in our culture regardless which game is played.
At Bonzi sports software we support the concept of recognition a couple of important ways. First we know that having your picture on a sports website or a video on your sports website is a powerful motivator. To support that Bonzi sports software allows for unlimited space so that coaches and volunteers can post all the pictures they want without being asked to pay more. We also make sure that we keep the cost of registration down without asking the sports club or league to compromise on what they get from the software. Finally, Bonzi sports software is unique in all sports software in that we have a content management system that makes it easy and fast for a volunteer or administrator to quickly post and title new photos or videos.
We know that appropriate recognition drives both effort and self-esteem in kids. When kids know how to go beyond their initial limits and the develop great self-esteem we know that our world will be a better place for everybody.
Tags: accomplishment, Communication, leadership, making decisions, Sports software, Youth Soccer Coaching
Posted in Acknowlegement, Coaching, Communication, Developing Kids, Motivation, Parents Win | No Comments »
June 25th, 2010
For many who have worked around the quest to improve performance in baseball, football, lacrosse, basketball… or any other endeavor in life we know that often the foundation of performance amounts to the combination of willing and able.
Simply put is the person performing both willing to perform and able?
The Heath brothers, Chip and Dan, in their amazing book “Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard” suggest that change, in this example changing from good performance to great performance, may require two critical things; clarity of what is required to make the change i.e. more exercise or better nutrition… and a specific and simple action that can be taken to get there.
In our experiences with performance it also helps to have both clarity of an inspiring win in personal terms and an internally or externally imposed “what by when” or “butt on the line” to take a specific action by a specific date.
Also from our experience we’ve learned that often the first step towards performance is a “what by when” for execution of an activity or more specifically an outcome i.e. run five miles. The next step and a step often regarded as an order of magnitude more difficult is to sign-up for an outcome instead of just an activity i.e. run five miles in under 30 minutes. I like to say that the professionals sign-up for outcomes while the amateurs sign-up for activities.
In the sports software or sports registration and scheduling software market Bonzi is well known as the company and I do mean the company that signs-up to lead and perform on all fronts; Bonzi signs-up for outcomes for our clients vs. just going through the activities. So what do I mean? In the following categories:
- league scheduling software
- league management software
- sports tournament software
- sports website software
- sports registration software
- online league software
with versions for every sport played on this earth (or at least so it seems)… Bonzi sports software has signed-up to meet or exceed our users expectations on the following fronts just to name a few:
- Free, ultra high quality, friendly and available support – even one-on-one training.
- Super easy to use yet easily the most powerful application on the market… and the only sports software that has a fully functioning content manager for website creation and management.
- Lowest overall cost and no forced advertising on your site and in your emails.
- Your money in your bank account every day.
- No contracts, no surprises and no games to have to explain to your board of directors after they’ve made the initial authorization – you’ll never feel like a dummy with Bonzi
- And about a million other goodies we know you’ll love like iPhone access and broader browser support than any other.
So we started this post speaking about “willing and able”. At Bonzi our performance rests on our being willing and able to give you the best sports software money can buy at the lowest cost… all so we can support your willing and able to perform in the sport you love.
Tags: accomplishment, Bonzi sports software, leadership, league software reporting, Little league baseball, making decisions, online registration, Performance, Sports software, sports team software, sports websites, team sports, team sports software, youth sports software
Posted in Communication, Costs, Motivation, Reporting, Scheduling, Support, Volunteers, Wins for Parents | No Comments »
June 21st, 2010
Have you ever wished you could find just one place that brought all of a specific sports rules, drills, history, videos, etc. together in just one, easy to access spot?
If you have then you’ll want to drop by www.bonzicentral.com every so often during the rest of 2010 and watch how we slowly but steadily add new content about your favorite sports to the www.bonzicentral.com website.
If you have suggestions for us, think we’ve missed something, or just like what you see, we’d like to hear about it in your comments in this blog. If it’s a legitimate comment or suggestion we’ll respond and we’ll likely act on it. After all, that’s how we and our customers build what our customers tell us is the best sports software available on the market today.
We’ll still cover sports registration, sport team websites, great reporting, Email communication for leagues, clubs and teams, sports scheduling and how to make it all easy and fast to do… and we won’t forget all of that friendly unlimited personal support you’ve come to expect. The only thing that will change is that you’ll be able to find more interesting information on www.bonzicentral.com
Yikes, I forgot to mention the new Bonzi Content Manager; it’s just getting rolled out now with Beta testers… but WOW, is it ever cool according to the folks who have gotten a sneak peek. Just imagine, most of the web site work that required a programmer in the past can now be done by anyone who can type. So what’s in it for you and your organization? Well, first of all you’ll be able to have that website you’ve always dreamed of without all the cost and complexity of using a web designer. You’ll also be able to get it in place fast and make the changes you want fast. Above all it will be fun and save you money.
So please check back with us… good things are coming your way soon.
Tags: Bonzi sports software, league software, online registration, software sports, Sports software, youth sports software
Posted in Coaching, Communication, How to Choose, Parents Win, Reporting, Scheduling, Support, Upgrades, Wins for Parents | No Comments »
June 16th, 2010
Sports Software, league software, youth sports software… whatever you call it doesn’t matter as much as what your perspective is when you think of it. What do I mean?
Sports software (or whatever you wish to call it) and it’s impact on your life differs by the job or role you have when you encounter it. Your role gives you certain experiences and experiences give you a unique set of distinctions… meaning you can see things that others can’t. No kidding.
For example, a referee see’s a sports activity with one set of eyes while a participant see’s it with another set of eyes and an observer/fan see’s it with yet another set of eyes. No perspective is wrong… they’re just different.
If you have never used sports software then at first glance they all look about the same… therein lies some danger that you might make a choice based upon limited distinctions and your development of distinctions might come from having a lousy first experience using sports software, league software and youth sports software. This can be especially painful if you get signed up for a multi-year contract that locks you in because you were told that “everybody” requires a multi-year contract.
If you have used sports software then you have developed some distinctions related to how you interacted with that software and the comments you heard from others. The painful thing is that it is all to easy to either have your contract with your current provider “auto” extend for a year or two… the details around this are usually in the fine print of your contract, or jump from a bad experience with your current provider to another equally difficult experience with a new provider.
Finally, it often happens that the sports software you are using may be OK for a volunteer who just does rostering or registration but a nightmare for your coaches, the person who manages the team web site or the person who is responsible for generating reports each week. The bottom line is that it is very difficult to gain enough sports software distinctions fast enough for any one person to understand all of the questions to ask to make sure that you and your organization get the best sports software for the unique needs of your club, league or organization.
Bonzi sports software knows this oh so well because our friendly team of sports software support experts speak with both Bonzi sports software users and people who are frustrated with other brands of sports software not just daily but hourly. From that experience has come something called the Bonzi sports software “Best Choice Tool Kit” and the “Bonzi Challenge”. Essentially Bonzi sports software knows that if you ask all the right questions that you’ll be in a great position to make the best choice for your and your organization. Bonzi also has good reason to believe that if you do ask all the right questions that you’ll quickly see that Bonzi, according to our customers, has what most clubs, leagues and organizations feel is the best sports software for most them.
Are you curious? Is your sports software contract going to expire soon? Are you doing it all with Excel and sheer determination? If so then you might want to check out our free, fair, and easy to use tools to help you and your organization make the best sports software choice for you and your club, league or organization by going here: http://www.bonzicentral.com/bonzichallenge
Tags: Bonzi sports software, league software, making decisions, online registration, software sports, sports registration, sports schedule software, Sports software, youth sports software
Posted in Coaching, Communication, Costs, How to Choose, Parents Win, Scheduling, Support, Volunteers | No Comments »
June 8th, 2010
Blame just feels right in so many cases. The big question is does it get us anywhere in reality? I suggest it doesn’t usually move anyone towards the things they want on or off the field in sports.
Let’s take little league from the perspective of the coach for example. If the team loses more often than the coach thinks they should given what he or she knows of the teams average skill level who or what is to blame? Blame the kids for (fill in the blank) until the cows come home and what will really change; nothing in my experience. By contrast if the coach looks in the mirror and realizes that the practice sessions have not done enough to condition the kids and balls keep getting dropped then conditioning and drills may be in order.
So you say Duh… everyone knows that in little league sports! So if thats true… why so much noisy complaint and yelling at the kids?
The experts out there tell us that we complain anytime there is a gap between what we want and what we are getting. More specifically when we complain we usually do so in one or more of the following three ways:
- Complaints for recreation – it’s a social lubricant and a way of aligning on values
- Expressive complaints – we just have to get it off our chest but don’t want or expect that anything will be done about it
- Complaints for action – we want and expect that something will happen and happen soon
Discerning which complaint you are making is tough and figuring out what other people are doing seems almost impossible much of the time.
In my experience the key is to simply ask; what are the possibilities that you think we should consider looking at to address this concern? That statement usually pulls out which of the three types of complaints are occurring and what you might need to do about it. I go so far as to ask myself the question so I can get clarity… if I really think these kids can do better in their little league baseball game then what action(s) would most likely yield the needed results in the relevant time-frame?
Once I know that then I know it is up to me to take the action or shut up and put up…unless I am just complaining for recreation or to blow off steam… and even then I need to make sure that my complaining isn’t doing harm to those around me who can’t figure out what my intent is with all my noise.
Does this line up with your experience?
Tags: accomplishment, Communication, Little league baseball, little league sports software, Sports software, Youth Soccer Coaching, Youth sports coaching
Posted in Acknowlegement, Coaching, Communication, Developing Kids, Motivation, Parents Win | No Comments »
June 7th, 2010
Knowing or discovering what your market wants and then providing it is an obvious key to business and life success. But, like so many things in life, it’s far easier said than done. At Bonzi we know you want the following basics from a sports software provider because our clients tell us or otherwise confirm these things every hour of every day:
- Friendly, unlimited, free support… even one-on-one training from people you know, like and trust to have your best interests at heart.
- Lowest overall cost
- Easy to use but with all the features and functions you need to do it your way
- Your money in your bank account within 24 hours of a transaction
- No surprises, no hidden costs and no contracts
- The best registration, website, scheduling and email communications software available that will run with almost any browser
- Speed; all of the above needs to happen fast no mater how many other people might be online
While those are all great things we’ve also realized that there are a few other elements that are also critical but at times hard to pin down:
- Reliable; we do what we say we will do when we say we’ll do it
- Good relationships; you treat me like a person, are appropriately warm and friendly and are willing to speak frankly when things need to be addressed
- Well run business; Bonzi sports software runs a tight ship business wise so that you can count on us being both efficient and around for the long haul
- Fit; you understand and give me what I need and beyond to run my club, league or organization
- Listen; we ask questions and don’t assume – we get to know you and your situation by asking good questions and listening well to the answer
- Research and innovation; you know best practices in sports software and are constantly working to keep the gap narrow
- Caution; we’ve done our homework so that our suggestions and direction are valid and reliable
- Available; you can reach us when you need us and we’ll respond
- Education; you’ll help us understand how things work and give us the tips that come from over a decade of working with organizations and the sports software that supports them
- Alignment; we have the features and functions you need to do your business – if we don’t have what you need we won’t hesitate to tell you so you can find a better alternative – we won’t waste your time if we aren’t aligned
- Deadline oriented; let’s face it, play starts on a certain date, standings must be posted by a certain date and your email has to get delivered so your plans stay on track – at Bonzi sports software your deadlines are our deadlines
All these may seem like subtle distinctions in a sports software provider… but they are distinctions that our customers tell us make all the difference in the world to their lives using sports software.
What do you think? Did we miss anything?
Tags: Bonzi sports software, Communication, contracts, league software reporting, making decisions, online registration, software sports, sports schedule software, Sports software, youth sports software
Posted in Coaching, Communication, Costs, How to Choose, Parents Win, Volunteers, Wins for Parents | No Comments »
June 4th, 2010
Your sports league software can help you generate revenue for your league – who knew. It seems I’ve heard it a hundred times. Cookie and wrapping paper sales are fine but they often don’t generate significant amounts of money and they can be a real pain for all concerned. Bonzi sports league software can make all that pain largely a thing of the past.
First for a couple of basics; when you hear a sports league software suggest that what they offer is “free” what they really mean is that they will advertise on your site AND likely charge you high credit card fees and a registration fee to boot; only the website is usually free. Add to that that the “free” version of the software is a pain to use and “free” becomes very expensive.
Making revenue for your club can be as easy as emailing reminders with links for things the league members can buy that will pay the league a commission. Good examples are coupon books, coffee, car washes, etc.
Alternatively, you can use Bonzi sports league software’s unique content management system to help you sell and place your own ads on your team pages, registration pages and email; unlike most sports league software vendors you are in control.
Using Bonzi sports league software you can pin-point a group within your league to get a message that is perfect for them or make an offer that is just for them an not everybody in the league. You can send that offer and test to see what kind of results you get. If you love the results then you can consider rolling out the entire promotion to the entire league.
Do you want to brain storm on how you can use Bonzi sports league software to simplify your leagues, club or organizations revenue generation? If so give Ricky Aker a call at 503-620-6661 X224 to set-up a time to review your options.
Tags: Bonzi sports software, Revenue Generation, sports league software, sports registration, Sports software, team sports software
Posted in Communication, Cost of Free, Parents Win, Revenue Generation | No Comments »
June 3rd, 2010
Major league vs. minor league; they do all the same things they just do them a bit differently.
A friend is an amazing golfer. Some of his well healed friends not only encouraged him to turn pro but offered to give him the money so he could attend the PGA “school” to qualify for the PGA Tour. Despite routinely playing par or better golf 98% of the time he said, he didn’t feel that he was good enough for the PGA. I asked him why and his answer surprised me. He said it came down to one word: consistency. From his point of view the worst guy on the PGA tour who was making a good living was much more consistent over time than my friend thought he could be. During his off hours he had worked at improving his consistency but had hit a ceiling that he could not get beyond in his opinion.
If you look closely at the elite vs. the average in any endeavor there are many differences and most of them come from consistent dedication to doing the work necessary to achieve the goal in my observation. Now you probably think I’m going to talk about Bonzi sports software or how kids can go from rec to traveling or some other high minded encouragement to go beyond. I could do that and I’d love to do that but it won’t be so today.
Today I’m going to just talk about the dedication to the magic of having fun with sports. The wrinkle here is that it does take dedication and focus to get the most fun out of sports in my experience. So what do I mean?
First, relax. If any of this were that serious you would have been notified by official correspondence. Second focus on the bright sports; what’s working well? Do more of that and magically it seems so many of the other things get better on their own. Third, just have the goal of having the most fun possible – a key to this is simply asking out loud and asking often… what could we do better next time to make this more fun. If you listen and ask often enough I suspect you’ll be pleased with the answers your brain gives you. Consider going above and beyond in the area of basic fitness. And finally whatever you decide to do and however you decide to do it consider taking a bit of extra effort to be consistent i.e. set a productive and effective pattern in how you approach the sport and stay with it for the whole season.
For some reason being consistent adds remarkable value for all sports in my experience.
To say more would just complicate things; try being a pro at having fun with sports no matter your level… and see what magic being consistent can do for your fun when it comes to sport and life.
OK… I did have to mention that when it comes to sports software that Bonzi is amazingly consistent at many things but probably nothing more than the fact that our support is consistently rated as wonderful and that we put your money directly into your bank account every day. Those are points of consistency that our customers say they LOVE.
Tags: accomplishment, Sports software
Posted in Developing Kids, How to Choose, Motivation, Parents Win, Wins for Parents | No Comments »
