Financial Impact of COVID-19 | Cornerstone Economics

With the global pandemic COVID-19 reaching Aruba, we have already started to see its financial impact here on the island. A lot of businesses (that are non-essential) have been forced to close its doors causing a lot of financial uncertainty amongst many.

In today’s article we shed light on how Cornerstone Economics, a financial consultancy firm, is adapting their business model with this unexpected change. Founders Lay Hing de Kort-Yee and Rendell de Kort sat with us during our BoldTV livestream to talk about their new strategy.

Lay Hing commented that their first step is to “fast-track”, meaning that on-going projects are now going digital as they would rather take these on rather than wait for things to “get better”.

Mindset
Lay Hing explains that they are focusing on their mindset, because a global event such as this one affects the mind the most. Lay Hing and Rendell are both making sure they keep motivating themselves and this starts from the moment they wake up. How do they achieve this? by focusing on the positive and by not thinking about what they lost or what is going to happen next, they think forward and make sure to work efficiently by scheduling and working with automated systems. 

Both Rendell and Lay Hing agree that in Aruba we will need international assistance from stakeholders to keep the majority of us afloat, which in our case would come from the Dutch Kingdom. The reality is that businesses will go bankrupt and families will suffer from scarcity here on the island so we must remain supportive of one another and also collaborate when possible. “We have to see it as if each one of us is a stakeholder at this point”, says Rendell. 

Financial Projection
In terms of financial projection during and post COVID-19, Rendell says that this will be a “completely different ballgame” moving forward. For most of us, our earnings will be cut in half compared to what we were earning in 2019, which will also affect our spendings. We have to look beyond 2020 as well, what will happen in 2021, 2022? We have to be ready to face the reality that the Tourism industry might not bounce back as quickly as we want which means we have to focus on what is locally in demand, or as Rendell puts it “back to the basics” i.e. looking at the food, medical, and energy sectors for example. Secondly, we should also focus on exporting i.e agri-tourism or outsourcing online services.

Advice for small businesses
Businesses should maintain costs as low as possible through this time, says Lay Hing. This is also a good time to focus on the administration side of your business, and focus on being innovative by offering services you’ve never offered before. It’s important that businesses collaborate and support one another if they can by offering barter deals and therefore strengthening each other’s skills. The direction that we will be going is more of a social entrepreneurship. 

To conclude, Cornerstone Economics says that this will be a new opportunity for us to build a new foundation of economics here in Aruba. The “new” generation will have to come up with new and innovative business ideas to build a better and stronger future for themselves and the future generation.