Page 12 - GBC summer 2015

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Golf Business Canada
I enjoyed golf and was pretty good at it, so my friends said I should join a club. So, in the late 1950’s, I applied to join a prestigious private club in the area. They told me they didn’t accept Bulgarians at their golf course. Twenty years later, they tried to give me the golf membership for free and I refused to join. I kept my social membership, however I refused to join as a fully-fledged member. I decided I would build my own golf course and eventually I did.
I started with one golf course with 27 holes, and then I built the other ones. It has turned out to be a very good business. I consider myself very fortunate because Canada gave me an opportunity that you cannot get anywhere else in the world. I owe a lot to Canada. Canada did everything – not me. It is very easy to harvest after you put the seed in the ground. But where you put the seed in – that is the question. Canada was a very good soil to harvest.
Most Canadians are very hardworking people. To come to another country, you have to be ambitious and you have to work hard because you want to have the same thing that your neighbour has. My neighbour had a television, so I wanted a television. My neighbour had a car, so I wanted a car. The soil where we are putting in the seed is fertile. Whatever effort you are putting in for this country, you get rewarded.
You place a high value on personal relationships. Is this part of the business culture with all aspects of your operation, including employees, suppliers, government officials, politicians and the media?
Yes. I am on good terms with the government at the local, provincial and federal levels. They know who I am. They know I am doing my job in this country and working hard to provide jobs for other people.
This philosophy is also true with my customers in both real estate and golf. This is the way we approach everything. With every business, you have to support the community. If people think you are a pillar in the community then you have to act that way. You cannot expect people to respect you when you do not contribute to that community.
“The golf course is building an overall experience for
the golfer; it is not solely about the golf. The clubhouse contributes to the golfer’s experience.“
You are investing five million dollars into Lionhead Golf Club & Conference Centre’s clubhouse renovation. What’s your vision for justifying that size of an investment?
When you have an investment of that size, you do not expect to make it up in one year. The golf course is building an overall experience for the golfer; it is not solely about the golf. The clubhouse contributes to the golfer’s experience.
If you have a good product people will be willing to pay for it. My opinion is that no matter what kind of investment you make in the golf course it contributes to the golfer’s experience. As part of our renovation, we are opening a new restaurant called Iggy’s Grill • Bar • Patio. All of our improvements, whether it’s the locker rooms or the food and beverage area, contribute to the overall experience of the golf course and surrounding community, and that is why it is a wise investment for us.