#fa6orfaris — the hashtag that turned into business

Believe it or not, breakfast is not just about tucking away the first meal of the day. For some, like businessman Faris Al-Turki, it may well open the doors for new enterprise, lucrative one at that!
Al-Turki, a fitness freak, has managed to translate his passion for a healthy breakfast into a new restaurant that is now the talk of Jeddawis. His restaurant now dishes out an all-day breakfast menu to people who helped make Al-Turki’s dream come true.
It all started three years ago when Al-Turki faced a health problem due workouts in the gym and skipping on the all-important meal of the day — breakfast. “The doctor advised me to start my day with a healthy breakfast stating that it will provide me with the energy I need to start my day,” he said.
“Subsequently, I wanted to spread the word about this meal which led to my sharing this information through Twitter. I also started posting articles and studies that underlined the importance of breakfast in addition to posting photos of my own breakfast everyday,” he said.
Followers of his Twitter account lapped it up and asked him to start a hashtag so that they can keep abreast of the developments. “Initially, it was amusing, but I was flattered when I realized that the followers were actually responding to this humble campaign. So, I did what they asked for,” said Al-Turki, adding: “One day I decided to check that hashtag. Little did I know that all my followers started using it to share their own breakfast and used it as a discussion board to share inputs on breakfast.”
Al-Turki also noticed that many followers were asking if his pictures were from a restaurant and were asking him to provide them with directions to #fa6orfaris restaurant. “I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw those comments and I always replied to them stating that this was only a home-cooked meal. More important, it also triggered my thought process into believing that opening up a breakfast restaurant was a good business option,” he said.
“Since my father owns a restaurant chain in the Kingdom, I have an idea of what to expect and how the business would work. So, I decided to look into it and found many of the people around me supporting the idea. So, I said, why not?” he said.
After chalking out the marketing plan, Al-Turki found that Jeddah lacked restaurants that serve good breakfast, which was encouraging. When it came to choosing the name of his breakfast outlet, his wife and family members insisted that he use the name of the hashtag, fully aware that it was already popular and people could connect with it easily.
“There are three things that we wanted to focus on — quality, portions and costumer feedback. I don’t want people to come to the restaurant just once. I want them to see it as a happy place where they can eat good food and enjoy great atmosphere,” he said, adding: “It was difficult initially. I had to locate a place, employ staff and ensure supplies. However, everything fell into place fast, and Allah blessed me with this business in a short period of time.”