September 7th, 2010
It takes many people to pull off a season of sports successfully.
It is ironic that, often in my observation, the better the contribution to that successful sports season the less recognition that contribution gets.
For example; the first four years my son was in soccer all of the soccer fields he played on were mud pits by the last half of the season because we live in the rainy pacific northwest. At some point the fields mostly seems to stay relatively mud free through most or all of each season. The value of this to all concerned was huge. Despite this value the contribution was not noticed at a conscious level and it certainly got no recognition or thanks.
The point is that while we may “get away” with not giving recognition for contributions, both the team spirit and the likelihood that the contribution will continue are much less without recognition in my experience.
At Bonzi we know our role and our contribution in most of the sports organizations we serve and only need one kind of recognition; that our teams continue to use our software every year. Sure, we like and want other forms of recognition but we really only need and hope for continued use of the software. Continued use really says it all to us.
Consider taking a look around at all that it takes to run a successful sports season and making that extra effort if you don’t already to acknowledge and recognize the wide variety of contributions that made the season possible. I have been impressed by some of the coaches and parents at the season end pizza parties that lightly but thoroughly cover many and maybe even most of the contributions, large and small, that made a season possible. I’ve also notices the smiles and glow coming from people who thought that their minor contribution had not been seen when to their delight they got a bit of recognition.
Tags: accomplishment, Bonzi sports software, Communication, youth sports software
Posted in Acknowlegement, Coaching, Communication, Developing Kids, Volunteers | No Comments »
August 11th, 2010
Impact; let’s face it, it’s what we want when we take an action in life.
When we choose something to add or subtract from our life we are hoping that we get an impact we both want and can feel. Is there anything more frustrating than to take an action that requires effort, risk, time, money, and political capital and either have nothing discernible happen or have something we don’t want happen?
When choosing youth sports software it is all too easy to not only not get what you wanted but to also be locked in to what you don’t want for years. The consequence of a bad choice in youth sports software can be deep frustration, wasted time, wasted money and heavy political cost to say nothing of compromised relationships.
Why are these consequences so high? For starters almost all youth sports software companies want to lock you in. They do this with auto-renewing long term contracts, no guarantees that what they promise is what they’ll deliver, and the most insidious is that they doubly lock up your data; you can’t export it and you can’t even report it in the ways your situation demands.
Bonzi youth sports software takes a different approach to all this:
- No contracts!
- Your full satisfaction is guaranteed
- Your data is never locked up
- If you can dream up a report you can have it; instantly
- Impact
The key to the list above is #5: impact. Our theory at Bonzi is that if you get the desired impact today and every day from Bonzi’s Youth Sports Software that nothing else will matter. For over ten years 100% of Bonzi’s thousands of customers has gotten the impact they came for every month, every year. They must have because not one of them has been locked into a contract and could have left at a moments notice.
The consequences of a bad choice in youth sports software is, we think you’ll agree, very high; you don’t get the impact you wanted and you are now locked in for years to come. The consequence of choosing Bonzi is that either you’ll get the impact you sought or you’ll be free to make a different choice.
In this nation we are a bit short on trust these days. We are short on trust because many feel that they have been burned over and over again; think oil spills, Wall Street, health insurance, and any of the hundreds of other pain points that seem to pop up every day. The big issue seems to be when people or youth sports software companies want you to give them your trust instead of earning it. At Bonzi we just want the chance to earn your trust… and re-earn that trust every 30 days for ever.
Just imagine if your car company said “if we ever let you down you can bring the car back and stop making the payments immediately”. What if your employer said “if we don’t keep our promises to you we’ll step down and you can get a new manager or management team in here tomorrow”. In essence that is what Bonzi says every day to each of our thousands of customers. And, knock-on-wood, nobody has ever said “get lost”.
You see Bonzi is willing to take the consequences if we don’t give you the impact you were seeking when you signed up unlike most of our competitors who rely upon contracts and lousy software to lock you in.
So it’s you choice; do you want a youth sports software company who is willing to immediately accept the consequences if they don’t achieve the impact you were looking for or do you want to “trust” a story from a company that is so un-confident in their ability to give you the impact you seek that they have to lock you in with an auto-renew contract to keep you from seeking alternatives?
Tags: Bonzi sports software, contracts, online registration, youth sports software
Posted in How to Choose, Parents Win, Performance, Reporting, Uncategorized, Value, Wins for Parents | 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 30th, 2010
One of the most startling things my father ever said to me as I was growing up was “Your eyes are bigger than your stomach”. Being very visual this statement hit me with both the “Yuck” factor of the image and the conviction that the metaphor was spot on in the situation at hand in my life.
24 – 7 – 365; All any of us has is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days in a year. Exactly how many years each of us might be lucky enough to get persists as one of the primary questions in any life. Given all this we can only accomplish so much with our precious time. If this is so then why are we so loath to write down and commit to goals… that are somewhat realistic AND that we reasonably might have the resources to accomplish?
The power of “and”. Last summer I sent my then 16 year old son on a three week Outward Bound adventure. We were warned that the adventure would entail carrying a heavy pack for 10 + miles each day over rugged terrain. To get him ready I thought of all sorts of complicated exercise routines but in the end decided to opt for something simple that had a high likelihood of actually happening often enough that the end result would be a level of conditioning that would allow my moderately sedentary son to have a good time and not hate me the rest of his long life. At first I was just going to have him walk home from school each day; nice, simple and likely to happen. The magic was the power of the “and”. Each day he took a pack with him to school and each week we added 5 pounds to the pack so by the last week prior to his Outward Bound departure he was carrying 60 lbs for 2.5 miles each day.
So why am I telling you this? Because for once in my life I got real about the: 1) goal, 2) resources and 3) time that we had to accomplish something. Had I made this complex my son would not have been prepared for what turned out to often be 10+ hours of walking each day and often more than 10 miles over steep terrain including snow. As it turned out my son was by far the most physically fit kid on the trip and as a result he had a truly life changing experience.
The key was two-fold; first we got real and clear about what our goal, resources and time was for the mission at hand, second we kept it simple enough to get done but not so simple that it didn’t meet the need; we included the powerful “and” of both the walking and the gradually increasing weight in the pack.
Too often I fail and see others fail when we don’t get real with people in sports and recognize the reality of our goals, resources and time… and as a result we don’t accomplish anything other than creating chaos and frustration. Workout routines that are simple and have limited objectives can often achieve most of our goals for a sport while staying within our resource limits and the little time most modern schedules can allocate.
At Bonzi sports software we too are faced with being real about our goals, resources and time. As one of the fastest growing sports software companies in the world (according to our consultant) our growth consumes resources and time along with our commitment to world-class support, providing the best sports registration software, sports scheduling software, team website software enabled with an easy-to-use content manager all in a no contract customer relationship. All this comes back to our goal; a great and frustration free experience for our dedicated volunteers, administrators and parents associated with sports such as soccer, football, basketball, baseball, softball, lacrosse, hockey , little league and volley ball.
We have found that if we keep it simple and real we can leverage the power of the “and” thereby both delivering a great experience every day for our clients and growing faster than any of our competitors without losing clients.
So what do you think? Are we achieving our objective?
Tags: accomplishment, Bonzi sports software, leadership, Little league baseball, sports registration, sports schedule software, sports team software, sports websites, team websites, youth sports software
Posted in Acknowlegement, Coaching, Communication, Developing Kids, Motivation, Parents Win, Performance, Volunteers | 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 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 »
May 24th, 2010
Sports Team Software; how do we see if a team is a fit?
When we interview a potential client for Bonzi sports software our first question is “When does the contract with your current sports team software provider expire”?
We ask because we know that some people are locked in to a contract with their current sports software provider and may not be able to change to Bonzi no matter how dissatisfied they may be.
We want to know for two reasons; 1) many and maybe most “contracts” used by Bonzi’s competition have a nasty little feature called “auto-renew” which means if you don’t notify them in writing before a certain date that the contract “auto-renews” for a specific period of time such as 1-3 years and 2) we want to begin providing you with appropriate information to help you make the best choice for you and your organization each month up to and through both your renewal window and the time by when you need to have made a decision so you can be ready for the next set of registrations using your new sports team software.
The next thing we’ll ask you is why you are not going to stay with what you have today – by the way, Bonzi has not had a customer leave in over 10 years and we don’t lock any team in with a contract. We want to know this because if we can’t do what they need done we want to let them know early. So far this has never happened but you never know when it comes to sports team software.
From there we ask what things they must have to meet their goals for the next sports team software program that they would adopt.
Once we know all that we do a bit of exploring to see what additional capabilities might be useful in their unique situation.
After all of that we simply follow-up with an email summarizing what your sports team software conversation with us had covered so that the person we spoke with at that organization can share the conversation detail with anyone else who is going to be part of the decision making process.
Finally, we ask you what you would like to do next. Here are the choices most people make:
- Some want to get started right away so we do just that, get them started. Usually they can be up and running with little effort within 24-72 hours.
- Some want a live demo so that they can see for themselves why the Bonzi sports team software is so famous for being the easiest sports team software on the market to use.
- Some want copies of the highly regarded Bonzi Best Choice Tool Kit so they can see all providers of sports team software in one place and see all the questions our research says organizations need to ask of sports team software providers to make the right choice.
- Some want to visit our online video demo so that they can watch, learn and listen when they want and at their own pace.
There is one common thread to all that is above and that is that Bonzi’s entire process of interacting with potential new customers is simple: we are here to do our best to align with your needs, wants and desires. If we can’t do what you need and want we’ll be the first to say so.
Our value proposition says that we’ll have the best support and totally free support, lowest overall cost, easiest to use sports team software, no contracts and we’ll put your money in your bank account everyday.
If you think we should do something different with our process we’d like to ask you to take a minute and tell us how.
Tags: Bonzi sports software, league software, making decisions, software sports, sports team software, sports websites, youth sports software
Posted in Communication, Costs, How to Choose, Parents Win, Support | No Comments »
May 21st, 2010
When your sports schedule software can’t match venue with team with coach with hour with day you have a mess that will likely only be addressed by a sports schedule software specifically designed to handle your size and complexity and beyond. It only takes a little bit of growth to completely defeat your ability to efficiently and effectively let everyone know where and when their game is happening.
You’re a large sports organization with over 3,000 players and many types of programs. Maybe the software you’re using just can’t keep up in general but you are struggling through anyway. You don’t have the features you want in your software, your staff complains about wasting time, and the vendor won’t answer the phone for support and email support is slow at best. Despite all that pain you can still keep the game going.
There is one area that when your sports software fails you are likely forced to find an alternative and find it fast; sports schedule software.
You want a software product that can keep up with your organization and the different needs you have. It has to support registration for your programs, handle thousands of transactions and allow a wide variety of staff members to work on the system at the same time without bogging down. Above all that, however, it must handle your schedule demands.
TRUE STORY
Dana’s sports club serves more than 5,000 players. They offer programs for youth and adults. They register online for camps and clinics, referees, leagues, competitive programs, try outs, tournaments and have fundraisers. . . all using Bonzi’s sports management software and sports scheduling software. There’s no slow down due to volume and the system has all the features a large organization needs to exceed everyone’s expectations. When Dana has a special need, she picks up the phone and instantly talks to an experienced Bonzi staff member about how to quickly and easily address the issue. Her requests for enhancements are added to the software, sometimes within a few days depending on her needs.
Above all Dana knows that she simply can’t outgrow Bonzi’s ability to quickly and effectively manage her incredibly complicated scheduling requirements. Since adopting Bonzi Dana sleeps well at night.
Any software provider should be able to explain how they would serve a large club and especially address how the sports scheduling aspect of their software can handle steady growth especially for a very large organization. They should have worked with large organizations before similar to yours and should demonstrate they understand the special circumstances you face managing a very large organization.
Bonzi software is the only sports software in the market specially designed to handle the needs, schedules and volume of large and very large sports organizations. It provides the features and customer support that larger organizations need to stay on top of their workload.
Tags: online registration, sports schedule software, Sports software, team sports software, youth sports software
Posted in Communication, How to Choose, Scheduling | No Comments »
