Working from home, she built a Rs 2.5 crore turnover recruitment firm roping in marquee clients

Shweta Jain Sanyal started her recruitment firm, Connections, in 2009 from Kolkata with a small sum of Rs 25,000. She used the money to subscribe to the employment portal Naukri’s database of job seekers.

“I started alone and worked from home with a desktop computer and a mobile phone,” says Shweta, who had about three years of prior work experience in the field of recruitment with stints at Times Jobs in Hyderabad and Adecco in Kolkata.

Shweta Jain started Connections in 2009 with an investment of Rs 25,000 (Photos: Special Arrangement)

Shweta, now based in Bengaluru, started with just two clients, Coca Cola and Emerson, a manufacturing company, and built a team of work-from-home women employees and slowly built the business.

From making Rs 5.75 lakh revenue in the first year, her proprietorship firm touched a turnover of Rs 2.50 crore during FY 2021-22. “We are a profitable company today. Now, I work with a team of 11 full time employees, and 18 freelancers,” she says.

Shweta, 42, was raised in a middle class family in the small city of Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, about 90 km from the state capital Ranchi.

She had her complete education in her hometown, passing Class 12 from St. Xavier’s School, and then pursuing her BA and MA in Economics from Vinoba Bhave University.

“Being a small-town girl never stopped me from dreaming big. I did my MBA after marriage through distance education while having a job and taking care of my family,” says Shweta, sharing her inspiring entrepreneurial journey with The Weekend Leader.

“I wanted to be a homemaker during my early days in school and then my life changed. I believe you can achieve anything at any stage of your life and career if you just believe in yourself.

I got married in 2004 to Brantindra Sanyal, an HR professional, who is now with United Health Group as Director, HR. I shifted to Mumbai after marriage and worked for about six months in Citi Corp as a customer care executive.

My husband has been a pillar of support to me. He told me that I could take up teaching or any other profession I liked.

Shweta worked in various recruitment companies for about three years before setting up her own firm

I joined a small HR and recruitment consultancy in Mumbai in 2006. I worked there for about six months before my husband got a job in Hyderabad and we had to leave Mumbai.

In Hyderabad I worked at Times Jobs as a recruiter. My job was to recruit employees for the organisation. In 2007, we shifted to Kolkata, where I joined Adecco, a global recruitment firm.

In 2008 I quit my job and decided to start my own recruitment firm. I spoke to a couple of clients with whom I was in touch with and asked them if they would support me if I started my own company.

They assured to support me if I would be able to meet their requirements and deliver top quality CVs. I started with Rs 25,000, and used the amount to subscribe to the Naukri database of job seekers.

I believed in the concept of ‘work from anywhere’ since I opened the company in 2009. I strongly believe that in our job one doesn’t need to come to office every day and they can do their tasks from anywhere.

Long before the pandemic, when the ‘work from anywhere’ concept was nowhere close to usual, I envisioned a platform that could open up the doors to new possibilities for all those women and mothers who wanted a career while staying at home, with flexible working hours so that they could take care of their child or play the role of a care giver to a family member.

Initially, I worked from my bedroom with a desktop computer and a mobile phone. Now, I work with a team of 11 full time employees, and 18 freelancers.

Connections does not take a commission from the employed candidates

We are a profitable company today. As far as our business model is concerned, we don’t take money from the job seekers.

We charge the client depending upon the position of the recruit, which varies from one month salary for a junior position to 10%, 12% or 18% of the annual CTC for senior positions.

I personally screen the senior profiles before sending them to the client and sometimes I connect with them over a Zoom call. At times, I have also met some of them in person.

However, like any other journey it was not a cake walk and I had faced many roadblocks in my entrepreneurial journey.

Initially, clients were skeptical on the ‘work from anywhere’ model without any office. Some clients even wanted to check our office set-up before giving us business.

However, I was able to get some big manufacturing and FMCG clients and with each year the business scaled greater heights in terms of turnover and the number of employees.

I faced challenges in balancing work and family after the birth of my children (Tashika in 2013 and Shaurya 2015). But I came back full throttle from 2017 onwards.

Shweta with her two children at her home-office

Since 2020 we started publishing a HR Newsletter (in digital format) called ‘Let’s Talk Talent’ with contributions from HR stalwarts in the industry. Till date we have published 13 editions of Let’s Talk Talent.

Today, Connections works with multiple marquee clients from FMCG, FMCD and manufacturing sectors, banking and financial institutions, and new age startups.

We have placed more than 1000 mid-level and senior-level positions across India. It has been a gradual but very fulfilling journey and I believe we will reach even greater heights.” - ©TWL