Hope on the Horizon: Qonto Report Reveals a Positive Outlook for European SMEs in 2024

Qonto, Europe’s leading business finance solution, today publishes its first barometer on the state of European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in 2023. The data of this report was collected in collaboration with market research company Appinio in a survey among 2,000 senior business and finance decision-makers in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The survey shows that European businesses overperformed in 2023 and have a positive outlook for 2024, despite a challenging year. However, the data also highlights continuing concerns over the macroeconomic context, especially regarding inflation and geopolitical events. Ultimately, results show that technology and client acquisition are European SMEs’ main priorities for 2024.

2023: A more-than-satisfactory year for most SMEs

In all four surveyed countries, a majority of business and finance leaders said their companies’ 2023 performance had exceeded expectations for the year despite a challenging economic climate. 71% said they either did “better” or “much better” than expected. Only 5% of respondents said their business results failed to meet their expectations.

Inflation is the main hurdle for European SMEs

Across all markets, inflation was universally mentioned as the main blocker for performance, followed by a lack of demand and geopolitical events. German SMEs seem to have been the most impacted, with 68% of business leaders raising it as the main challenge in 2023, followed by 61% in Spain. In France and Italy, at least one in two companies suffered as a result of inflation (55% in France, 50% in Italy).

Despite economic challenges, European businesses are optimistic about 2024

The report shows strong confidence of European leaders in their forecasts for 2024. Indeed, a vast majority of respondents said they were ‘optimistic’ or even ‘very optimistic’ about their businesses revenue evolution for next year (74% in France, 84% in Germany, 85% in Italy, 86% in Spain). Similar results were observed when business leaders were asked about their confidence in the future of their industry.

European SMEs intend to invest heavily in Tech and Digitalization in 2024

According to the data, decision-makers in Germany, Spain and Italy plan to invest massively in tech and digitization in 2024. In France however, respondents showed less optimism about tech investments opportunities. Indeed, French SMEs will mostly invest in Marketing, Customer Service and Partnerships.

Entrepreneurship is a popular career option for European decision-makers

The data show that almost three quarters of the surveyed leaders consider creating their own company in the future. This is also true for respondents who already founded a company in the past. Even though almost half of founders (49%) said that the current macroeconomic situation might hinder them from starting another company, the data shows that 78% of them would create another company again in the future. Of the founders surveyed, a vast majority (80%) said they were not considering selling their companies within the next three years.