The best of 2021 to warm you up for 2022

What would you expect to find on an entrepreneur's wish list for 2022? Growth for their company? Innovation? Profitability? An end to the pandemic, once and for all?

We can't do much about that last one, but we've spend all of 2021 at Qonto helping to make sure the first three become a reality. Our aim has been to make day-to-day accounting as swift and serene as possible, so that entrepreneurs can focus on growing, innovating and boosting their bottom line.

To recap some of the information you've been asking of us, let's round up the most popular articles we've published over the last 12 months.

Particularly relevant to new and recent business founders, there is plenty of public and private aid out there that can jump-start young companies. They cover anything from tax breaks and social security grants to zero-interest loans and bonuses specific to certain sectors. We summarized them for you in this article about your right to access outside help for your business.

For more mature companies with established income streams, efficient cash flow management matters hugely. Do it well, and you might have a cash surplus to invest. You can make your money work hard and make more money by itself. In this article from June, we look at ways of making treasury management work for you rather than against you.

For many business owners, the most important metric is the one right at the bottom of the balance sheet: net income. The question "Is my company making money?" is often followed by "How can it make more?" Clearly, there is no miracle formula for guaranteed profit (and if one does come along, you'll be sure to hear all about it) but there are proven tactics and strategies that can help.

Increasing profit can be a particular challenge for maturing companies; as they grow, they become less flexible as there are more moving parts to keep well oiled. An area in which we've found growing businesses need help is in managing team spend. One answer lies in better delegation; companies with smooth delegating processes make up to 33% more revenue than those where delegation is a problem.

So we've made it easier for SME owners to delegate. How? By making it easier for team managers to keep on top of their own teams' spending. This way, teams appreciate more autonomy, while everyday purchasing is approved faster and more efficiently. Freed of this burden, business owners have more time and focus to spend on strategy, attracting new customers and growing that all-important bottom line.

We've all learned plenty in 2021. At Qonto we believe that sharing our experiences and understanding what works elsewhere is key to developing knowledge. It's why we speak constantly to business owners, to listen and collect their unique insights. During Global Entrepreneurship Week in November, we interviewed company creators from four European countries to learn about what they have learned themselves (also available as video).

We'll continue to learn in 2022 and what we find out, we'll be delighted to share with you.