Sandhya Manojkumar, Founder, Teamworx Consulting

“Teamworx works”

 The Young Entrepreneur enlightened us on her venture saying “Teamworx Consulting is a boutique recruitment firm that specializes in middle and seniors levels in sales and marketing across industries. Working on the philosophy of total customer satisfaction, Teamworx is committed to the task of finding the right fit between the candidate and the client. The key idea is to be an effective and sensitive interface, ensuring happy candidates and thereby happy clients through a process that is thorough and professional.”

“Teamworx has placed over 300 professionals across industries like media, marketing, engineering, and research. With a clutch of multinational and Indian companies that include Seagrams, Quintiles, IMRB, among others – Teamworx is all set to grow in the coming years servicing a wider portfolio of clients. The Teamworx promise is that it will work as a team member of the client making the difficult task of building a good team a little less arduous. Based in Bangalore, Teamworx handles clients across all the metros and has sourced candidates from all over the country and abroad.”

The market for recruiters seems to be limitless, and has many players entering the arena. However, only the fittest shall survive and Teamworx is fighting fit. Sandhya says “The scope is vast as we have so far catered to only one segment of clients. We have been operating as Non IT recruiters, catering only to the communication (Media, research and advertising), engineering and the FMCG sectors. The idea is to move into more verticals on the recruitment front.”

“With the recession hitting the recruitment business hard, Teamworx is re-inventing itself by getting into the business of distributing and marketing products from SME’s., I think the scope for growth is tremendous in this area and sales has always been a passion for me. We have already signed 3 products for representation in 3 different categories. The idea is to build this to about 10 products and thereby help SME’s find better reach for their products.”

Teamworx and their methods of recruitment differ from others in that they have:-

• A proprietary database built over the last 5 1/2 years among sales and marketing professionals across the country
• A process that focuses on personal contact and understanding of candidate strengths and fit with roles
• Access to key database of jobseekers
• Focus on networking that identifies suitable candidates
• Reduction of processing at client end, leading to higher productivity for HR

In marketing representation Teamworx also:-

• Helps SME’s with their sales and marketing and create more visibility for their products.
• Helps in promotion and better reach for their product/service.
• Provides Professional resources at no extra cost for SME’s.
• Helps in Brand building.

Sandhya and Teamworx have done well so far, however the recession has demanded something different from them. They have thus remodeled themselves and Sandhya states how saying “The first 4 years in business, Teamworx grew from strength to strength purely on word of mouth. Last year, with the recession hitting India too, business had to be sourced for the first time. This experience has taught me to look at business very differently. For one, I am planning to expand the client base, look into other industry segments like hospitals, consumer durables, pharma etc. Two, I planned to diversify and executed that this April. I have already reinvented the business model by getting into sales and marketing representation for companies from this financial year. We added on 3 products and are looking at scaling this up to 10.”

Sandhya always knew what she wanted to do with her life and was fully prepared to take on the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. She speaks of her love for her vocation saying

“It was my passion from my childhood to work on my own. I always looked at every job I did as a learning to eventually be in my own business. I enjoy the feeling of being an entrepreneur thoroughly. Everyday is so unique from the other and the buck stops only with you. The pressures are immense. However, the fact that you have to wear many hats simultaneously in dealing with clients, vendors, your team etc and the fact that you are solely responsible for the decisions make it exciting.”

“Getting inroads into reputed MNC’s who have been doing business for years with other consulting firms was a challenge. From the beginning we were competing with the best in the industry. Getting across to clients as a transparent and professionally run organization was the key in overcoming barriers.”

With her family backing her, Sandhya set out to conquer the world. What had started as a small scale operation in a small garage 6 years ago has turned into a well oiled machine today. She speaks of the journey for her saying “On the team side, I would say the achievement has been to meet so many young enthusiastic people, groom them at work and watch them take charge completely. The transformation is amazing and personally very enriching. Personally, just an idea to do something on your own blossoming into a full fledged business is an achievement.”

“Getting testimonials from clients that we are a professionally run company and that we work in a partnership mode with them is great recognition. Further that Teamworx actually understands the client’s needs and so it is easier dealing with us than other recruiters is very gratifying. Many clients have also stated that the flow in the office is the same even in my absence.”

Sandhya is hooked onto entrepreneurship and takes pleasure in it. She knows this because of “The fact that I enjoy the ride! Every time you strike a deal, every time you make a difference to a company/individual the joy associated with it, the sense of achievement is unbelievable. It is basically like having a baby and watching it grow. “

She states her goals for Teamworx in the coming years saying “We will be a strong marketing organization with a solid team of individuals representing different verticals for sales and marketing. The team size will grow to around 25 people between the two companies. We will establish ourselves as professionals and ethical distributors just like we did in recruitment.”

For Sandhya her personal achievements have always been memorable she recalls them saying “There have been a lot. The first time I won an elocution competition in class 5. This was the first time I stood in front of the whole assembly to speak. When I received the prize from my parents who were the chief guests for my annual day function in class 6.

When I became the head girl of my school, it was a very proud moment. When I became the president of my college and when my college won an award while I was the President for a campaign against drugs…received this from Mr. Sunil Dutt. Receiving the best sales award in my first job and getting a promotion there after.”

Sandhya has come along way in the 6 years that Teamworx has been in business but she does not hand out advice but simply says “…a bit early I guess to give advice. However, I think it is important to do what suits you best. Business is not about just making money or doing a particular thing as it is the most happening thing to do etc. It is all about what you enjoy doing most. This gives you the ability to stay motivated and driven in the worst situations. Stick to your passion and not other peoples. You are bound to succeed.”

Sandhya will surely achieve her goals thanks to her predilection for entrepreneurship and we have no doubts that she will find success. Yourstory thanks her for her time and her willingness to tell her story.