SMU Alumni Highlight: Tim Hackett
Written by Holly Morrison
@holly.morrison
Thumbnail and Header Photo by Berkshire by Teak Tree Enterprises
During their teenage years, many people take on odd jobs such as dog walking, babysitting, or lawn mowing to make some extra pocket money. For most though, that’s where these efforts end. However, for SMU alumnus Tim Hackett, odd jobs in lawn care have led him to become co-owner of a successful landscaping company, Berkshire by Teak Tree Enterprises. Beginning as Jon’s Lawns, Tim and his brothers, Jon and Nic, started this project originally in 2012, when Tim was in his senior year of high school.
“It started as a side job, where we would mow and aerate lawns at a list of residential properties. This list grew over the years, and in 2016 we incorporated as Berkshire Property Maintenance Inc.” Tim said in an interview that I conducted with him last week.
Now, almost a decade after the start of their company, they have expanded their services to include landscaping, lawn maintenance, construction, and snow removal for multiple commercial properties around Halifax. As of 2021, Berkshire now employs 20 workers year-round and 50 seasonally. Additionally, since recently expanding with the purchase of a larger area of land for equipment and offices, it is safe to say the business has grown greatly. In their biggest expansion to the company, Tim, along with his co-owners, brothers Jon and Nic, and Faisal Khatib, had the opportunity to purchase Teak Tree Enterprises Limited in late 2017.
“Teak Tree, a company started in 1987, had an extensive list of commercial and government clients in both landscape maintenance and snow removal, and a strong reputation in the industry,” Tim said of the purchase. “In May of 2018 we finalized the purchase of Teak Tree and have since begun growing the company, with a primary focus on expanding into larger scale landscape and hardscape projects, including retaining walls, paver patios, new construction lawn installations, etc.”
Having majored in accounting through the Sobey School of Business, Tim’s experience at SMU has greatly informed both his business skills and work ethic. When I asked about his proudest accomplishment while attending SMU, Tim said: “My proudest achievement while at SMU was my success with the Cooperative Education program that SMU offers. I completed three Co-op terms with Killam Apartment REIT in a few different areas, and thanks to this program and my work terms with Killam, I was offered a full-time Intermediate Accountant position with Killam prior to graduation. I worked in that position for over a year before leaving to manage Teak Tree full-time.”
During his time at SMU, Tim said that the most important skill he gained was a good work ethic. Between a full course load, working two jobs, and running Berkshire, a strong work ethic was necessary to handle it all. The work ethic Tim developed at SMU has become a huge benefit for his company.
With SMU being known as a business school, I felt it important to ask Tim what advice he would give to new graduates when it came to starting up their own businesses: “I would tell them that it is absolutely one of the most rewarding career paths,” Tim advised. “There is a lot of freedom that comes with it, but also a huge amount of responsibility and it requires a strong work ethic. You also must accept risk, because there will always be risk when venturing out on your own. But as a new grad, it is the prime time to do it - you are young and have time on your side.” Seeing the success that Berkshire by Teak Tree has had under the leadership of Tim and the co-owners, this definitely seems like reliable advice.
As for the future of the company Tim is optimistic and ambitious. He hopes to branch out into more construction and heavy excavation work, while continuing to expand the current areas of operation. “Beyond that,” he added, “we hope to diversify further and get into real estate in some form.”
With so much success in so little time, there are many things for Tim to be proud of when it comes to this company and the way it has been built from the ground up. He states that “increased customer satisfaction, efficiency, employee morale, and revenue growth” has been a source of pride in the two and a half years since the purchase of Teak Tree. He also added “We are also very proud that as brothers, we have maintained a great relationship and that strong relationship is part of what has made us successful. We each bring something different to the table, which together adds tremendous value to the company.”
To learn more about the services that Tim and Berkshire by Teak Tree Enterprises offer, or if you are interested in having work done by them, visit their website, or keep up with them on their Facebook and Instagram pages.