For Advance co-founders Jaime de los Angeles and Addi Guevara, maintaining business as usual has never been so important—or so challenging. As the global economy remains at a standstill due to the threat of coronavirus, organizations and individuals alike are turning to financial service providers for assistance. An economic downturn can actually drive usage for financial services as the hankering for security rises. But this comes with heightened risk—especially for a young fintech startup like Advance, which has been providing on-demand salary advance services to employees across the Philippines since October 2018.
“One of our biggest concerns today is the negative impact of the pandemic on companies and industries that we initially wanted to service but now can’t. Because banks are tightening their credit policies, we need to think carefully about how to continue optimizing our services while being cost-efficient, especially now that our customers need us most,” said de los Angeles, Advance CEO.
Management has prioritized liquidity and prepared budget plans for different scenarios. The product pipeline has also been reordered to rollout more relevant services for users.
“We need to be a step ahead and anticipate the ‘new normal’,” said Guevara, Advance CFO. “It’s good that our services can be delivered instantly online, and that the team is already able to perform at a high level remotely. Even so, we are determined to evolve and improve the way we operate to future proof our offerings and touchpoints with our partners and customers.”
These days, focus has been shifted onto creating business continuity and product rollout plans, as well as the realignment of budgets and forecasts.
Despite today’s setbacks, the Advance founders have found many reasons to remain optimistic: “I’m grateful that we have enough runway to keep us going, and that operations are still going smoothly. Team morale is very high and everyone continues to band together to achieve our goals. Addi and I have strong support systems—family, team, investors, partners—all weathering the storm with us,” de los Angeles said.
Moving forward, Advance will uphold its commitment to help lift the Philippine economy by partnering with more companies to provide financial assistance to their workforce. “Everyone will need access to credit to recover from this crisis. Advance will lead the way in providing simple, accessible, and fair credit to Filipinos,” Guevara said.
Based on learnings from the current situation, de los Angeles and Guevara would advise fellow business owners to integrate technology into daily operations in order to adapt to what they feel will be a more digital-oriented world. “Many companies will need to develop digital strategies to survive. We’ve always been moving towards a predominantly online world; we just need to get there faster,” Guevara said.
Meticulous preparation and data-driven strategizing is key to thriving after the crisis. “Trust your team and work closely together. Communicate clearly within the organization, and extend the same to your customers and external stakeholders. Nowadays, the saying ‘cash is king’ is all the more relevant. Have a plan and always look for opportunities to strike.”