Sikandar Khattak enjoys being hands on, which is one of the reasons he loves running his own landscaping business. He tried entering the corporate world by attending business school, but during a summer breaks, his life went a completely different direction. He started working as a landscaper to save up for the next semester and never went back. “I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit,” Sikandar says. “I think that’s why I decided to quit school and become a landscaper. I wanted to do it instead of learn about it, and I wanted to work to make my own dreams come true.”
Sikandar spent a few summers learning the landscaping profession and decided to launch his own business with a friend and coworker. Together, they found The Lawnfather, which specializes in commercial and residential landscaping services. “We do all kinds of projects, including patios and hard landscaping services,” Sikandar says. “But our specialty is soft landscaping, like cutting grass, maintaining lawns and gardens, that sort of thing. We’re really busy in the spring. That’s when we aerate lawns and get people’s outdoor spaces ready for the summer.”