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Fitness fanatic Farhad Bhyat has had plenty of success in his sales career, but it was success in his love life that inspired him to found cutting-edge social media screening business Farosian. Forged in the fiery political climate of South Africa, Farosian is quickly carving a niche as the place to check your employees’ online footprints. Farhad has taken time out to tell us about how he made it all work, while still finding time to stay fit for his fiancée.
How did the idea for Farosian come about?
I was driving home from work one day and I heard something on the radio about social media that made me think back to when my fiancée and I first met. I know for a fact that she ‘stalked’ me on social media and I stalked her. Why? Well, from an employment perspective, she had a vacancy for a romantic or intimate partner, as did I. I had certain criteria that the person needed to meet, and so did she. So we carried out our investigation to make sure that person met the necessary criteria, just like when you hire someone. Then I thought: if it’s good enough for your personal life, why not for business? It’s that simple.
Were others so quickly convinced?
Initially I thought it was going to be easy, as we managed to make a sale the first time we pitched the idea. But as time went on I realised that although nobody told me once that what we do wasn’t needed, or valuable, the recruitment industry didn’t seem to want to buy.
South Africa is a very late-adopting nation. Whenever First World countries have adopted something, South Africa only tends to adopt it three to five years later. But with perseverance and education we’re slowly getting around this.
Is there anything unique about South Africa that helped shape Farosian?
Because of South Africa’s political history, issues such as racism and sexism are very touchy subjects, and they come out in the media at any and every opportunity. At the beginning of this year, for example, a real estate agent by the name of Penny Sparrow put up a Facebook status that caused huge uproar. Now she cannot find employment, and her previous employer has suffered tremendously from the reputational damage. Situations like these highlight the importance of the work we do.
What’s been your biggest challenge?
I’d say the biggest challenge from a sales perspective was education. It’s such a simple concept that everybody can understand, but at the same time people are quite averse to the idea of invading privacy so they tend to misinterpret the work that we do. We don’t just log in and trawl through your photos to see what your dance moves are like on a night out!
How does where you work affect how your business grows?
That’s something I’ve been fighting with since day one. I’ve been working from home until now because we don’t employ enough people to warrant our own office space yet. It’s been convenient, but it’s not always conducive to productivity. There are too many distractions.
We’ve used Regus once or twice for strategy sessions, but as we grow we’ll probably start looking at flexible office space for meetings, board rooms and a point of contact – things that matter for our professional image. It’s vital for our business, since we help others with their brand image and reputation.
Where do you see Farosian in the future?
We’ve been busy looking at partnerships with job boards and job portals. We’re actually dealing with all three of South Africa’s major players currently, working very closely on deals that could generate exponential growth for us in a very short period of time.
Exports are something I’m very big on too. What we do has no border restrictions, so we’re able to cater for any company globally. Based on my research there are just eight to ten companies worldwide, including Farosian, that do what we do. So the competitor list is very small. Being based in South Africa with the benefit of a weak Rand, our pricing becomes very competitive.
I gather you’re a fitness fanatic. Can you still fit that in, and does it help you with the business?
Not as much as I’d like. There’s the odd day where I work 18 hours! But I still try and maintain my routine simply because it’s part of me – it’s something I’ve been doing since I was 21.
I’m a firm believer in balance and for me, focussing too much on work without any ‘me time’ in the gym can be soul-destroying. I lose focus and become agitated and irritable in my personal life. It gets very difficult. So it’s an outlet and my way of maintaining balance.
Farhad uses Regus facilities in Johannesburg. You can find out more about his services on the Farosian website and, of course, Facebook and Twitter.
Top tips from Farhad:
1. Surround yourself with people who are truly supportive. Setting up a business is a long and lonely journey and you can feel like the weight of the world rests on your shoulders.
2. Make sure you look for people who will give you uncensored advice; too many ‘yes men’ will send you in the wrong direction.
3. Wake up every day with a plan and a vision. Don’t be afraid of the unknown, just keep on trying and if your goals and your action plan remain focussed, it will all come together.
