Almost everyone applying for the self-employment grant for the first time types the same thing into the search bar: "an example of a business plan for the HZZ". In front of you is a blank form, a series of questions you're not sure how to answer, and the feeling that everything would be easier with a ready-made example.
The instinct isn't wrong — it becomes wrong only when the example goes from being a point of reference to being a template to copy. Someone else's plan describes someone else's idea, someone else's market and someone else's figures. When you copy it, you put into your own document claims you can't defend — and defending your own figures is exactly what the evaluator looks for.
A business plan isn't a document meant to impress the HZZ. It's a document meant to prove that your business idea makes sense.
This text, therefore, isn't a classic article, but a guide you keep open while filling in your own form. You can find a ready-made sentence almost anywhere on the internet — the business logic behind it you can't copy. That is exactly what separates an average business plan from a good one.
Looking for a ready-made example of a business plan for the HZZ? We deliberately don't publish one. A quality business plan must be adapted to a concrete business idea, market and financial assumptions. Instead of a template to copy, this guide explains how to think through each question of the form and what the HZZ actually wants to assess.
How to use this guide
The form leads through several sections, always in the same order: information about you, the subject of the business, the market and competition, investments, revenue, costs and expected profit, and finally the cost budget. The structure is fixed and is the least demanding part of the job. What's hard is what goes inside.
The whole philosophy of the evaluation fits into one table. Remember it — everything else is elaboration.
| The HZZ wants to see | Entrepreneurs often write |
|---|---|
| Concrete facts | General claims |
| Realistic figures | Optimistic assumptions |
| Business logic | Nice sentences |
| Connected chapters | Disconnected chapters |
A business plan isn't a writing test. It's a test of business thinking.
Let's go through the form step by step.
Step 1 — Applicant information and work experience
Question from the form: personal details, education, previous work experience and training relevant to the planned activity.
What does the HZZ actually want to see here? Whether there's a connection between what you've done so far and what you plan to do. This isn't filling in a CV — it's the first proof that you know what you're getting into.
#### 🧩 How does this connect with the rest of the business plan? The advisor doesn't look at a list of jobs, but at the thread connecting them with the future activity. For each item they quietly ask, "what does this prove?" Whatever proves nothing — they cut. A list without logic doesn't strengthen the application, it dilutes it.
Most common mistake: listing every job you've ever had, with no word on how it prepared you for the new activity.
🟩 Meridian tip: Don't list experience — connect it. Every item must lead toward the business you're starting.
Step 2 — Subject of the business: how you came up with the idea
Question from the form: how you came up with the idea and why you believe you have the knowledge and ability to make it successful.
What does the HZZ actually want to see here? That the idea didn't arise because a grant exists, but because a real need exists and your real experience exists. The evaluator looks for a cause-and-effect story, not a statement of desire.
#### 💼 How do we approach this question in practice? We look for a clear thread: experience → an observed need → the decision to meet it. What matters isn't how eager you are to be your own boss, but whether you can show that the need exists and that you of all people know how to satisfy it. The story of the idea must foreshadow the market and the revenue that come later. If it doesn't match them, the document already loses credibility here.
Most common mistake: phrases like "I always wanted to work for myself". It sounds nice, it proves nothing.
🟩 Meridian tip: If you can retell your idea story unchanged for any other activity, you haven't told your own story.
Step 3 — Description of the product/service and location
Question from the form: describe in detail the product or service and where and how you intend to carry out the activity.
What does the HZZ actually want to see here? That you've thought through the day-to-day of the business, not just the big picture. Who pays for the service and for what exactly?
#### 🎯 What does this section really need to prove? That from the description we understand what exactly you do on a Monday morning. If the answer is hazy, the description is too broad. The attempt to be everything, to "cover every possibility", always betrays that the business hasn't yet been thought through.
Most common mistake: a hazy description that sounds broad in order to cover everything. Being everything usually means being nothing.
🟩 Meridian tip: A good service description reads as if you're already working — not as if you're still thinking about what you might do.
Step 4 — Assessment of the market and customers
Question from the form: who your customers are, which area you're focusing on, and how you've estimated you'll have enough clients.
What does the HZZ actually want to see here? A realistic, substantiated estimate — not optimism. This is where it's clearest who thought about the business and who copied.
#### 🔍 What would an experienced evaluator check first? They don't ask "is the market big", but "how many customers can this person realistically serve, and how do they know that". The number of customers isn't an incidental piece of data — it's the foundation on which the entire revenue estimate will stand. So it's derived from something tangible: the size of the target group, your capacity, the rhythm of work. A bicycle repair specialist won't say "demand is great" — they'll calculate how many clients they can realistically get round in a week. That's the difference between an estimate and a hope.
| Bad approach | Good approach |
|---|---|
| Figures written from memory | Figures derived from the market |
| "The market is big" | "I can serve N clients monthly" |
| A claim with no source | A claim with an explanation |
Most common mistake: a generic analysis you could paste into anyone's plan. Without a single number and a single place, that isn't analysis — it's hope.
🟩 Meridian tip: The market estimate and the revenue estimate must shake hands. If they don't know each other, the plan contradicts itself.
Step 5 — Competition and differentiation
Question from the form: who your competition is, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how you'll differ from them.
What does the HZZ actually want to see here? That you know the terrain and have a real reason why someone would choose you. The worst possible answer is that there's no competition.
#### 📌 What should you pay particular attention to? First, acknowledge others' strengths — an entrepreneur who sees only their own advantages comes across as unserious. Only then look for your own advantage, and a narrow, concrete one tied to experience. The phrases "faster, better, cheaper" promise everything and prove nothing. An advantage that fits everyone differentiates you from no one.
| The HZZ wants to see | Entrepreneurs often write |
|---|---|
| A concrete, defensible advantage | "I'll be of higher quality and more affordable" |
| A realistic acknowledgement of others' strengths | "Competition basically doesn't exist" |
Most common mistake: the claim that there's no competition. It almost always exists, at least indirectly. If you don't see it, the evaluator concludes you haven't researched the market.
🟩 Meridian tip: A real advantage is usually narrow, concrete and stems from experience — not from adjectives.
A good business plan answers questions before the evaluator asks them.
Step 6 — Marketing: how you'll reach customers
Question from the form: how you'll inform potential customers about your offering.
What does the HZZ actually want to see here? A realistic plan of how your first customers will even find you — adapted to a budget that, at the start, is usually very modest.
#### 💼 How do we approach this question in practice? The channel is chosen according to where the customers are, not according to how many of them there are on a list. The question is which channel this particular activity actually uses and which the budget allows. Everything else is noise.
Most common mistake: ticking every offered channel "just in case". A plan in which you use absolutely all of them betrays that you haven't thought about which one really suits you.
🟩 Meridian tip: Better two channels you can genuinely carry out than eight you merely ticked.
Step 7 — Investment structure and cost budget
Question from the form: what you intend to invest the grant funds and other funds in, and what equipment you already have available.
What does the HZZ actually want to see here? That every investment stems from a real need of the business described earlier. A cost tied to nothing arouses suspicion.
#### 🧩 How does this connect with the rest of the business plan? The cost budget is read backwards — from the description of the activity toward the equipment. If equipment is mentioned somewhere that isn't here, or a cost appears here that's mentioned nowhere, the chapters aren't communicating. Every item must have its "why".
Most common mistake: "just in case" items or equipment with no connection to the activity. Every disconnected cost weakens the whole document.
🟩 Meridian tip: A cost budget isn't a wish list. It's a list of what, without it, you couldn't get through the first month of operating.
Every chapter must confirm the one before it.
Step 8 — Revenue estimate
Question from the form: estimate of revenue in the first and second year of operating, by product or service.
What does the HZZ actually want to see here? That revenue stems from the number of customers, and isn't entered because "that's roughly what's needed". This is the heart of the document and, almost always, the weakest point for those working on their own.
#### 📊 What does this figure really have to prove? That it's derived, not desired. Revenue is built bottom up: from the number of customers and the average value of a service, and then you see what comes out. The first check is whether the number of customers matches the one from the market analysis. The logic always runs in this direction:
| Clients per month | Average value of a service | Monthly revenue |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | €250 | €2,000 |
| 12 | €250 | €3,000 |
The figures are made up and show only the direction of the calculation. Your task isn't to copy them, but to justify why that many clients and that exact price — and that justification comes from Step 4.
Most common mistake: revenue that a successful business achieves only after several years, entered already in the first. An inflated figure doesn't help the application — it undermines it.
🟩 Meridian tip: If you can't explain the figures to yourself, you won't be able to explain them to the evaluator either.
We've written in more detail about putting the figures together in the guide how to prepare financial projections for a business plan.
Step 9 — Costs and expected profit
Question from the form: the cost of labour, other costs and the calculation of expected net profit in the first two years.
What does the HZZ actually want to see here? That the costs are realistic and aligned with revenue, and that in the end a meaningful profit is left. This is where the whole logic of the document closes.
#### 🔍 What would an experienced evaluator check first? Whether everything adds up. Profit isn't entered, but derived: revenue minus costs, minus tax. If the numbers from the revenue and cost tables don't produce the stated profit, the document fails on the first careful reading. The evaluator doesn't read individual fields — they read the whole.
| Good approach | Bad approach |
|---|---|
| Profit derived from revenue and costs | Profit entered "by eye" |
| Costs that match the activity | Costs copied from someone else's plan |
| Figures that add up | Figures that don't tally |
Most common mistake: costs that hang in the air and a profit that doesn't match revenue and costs. The most easily spotted inconsistency.
🟩 Meridian tip: A single inconsistency in the figures casts a shadow over the whole document. Consistency is your strongest argument.
# 🤖 Can ChatGPT write a business plan for the HZZ?
A question I hear more and more often. The honest answer is: partly.
Such tools really can help — for brainstorming ideas, for structuring the document, for refining and polishing the text linguistically. If you need someone to arrange your thoughts and correct your sentences, the tool will do the job.
But there's a line AI can't cross. ChatGPT doesn't know what the real demand on your market is, how many customers you'll realistically have, what your strategy is, or where your financial assumptions come from. And when it doesn't know that, it does what such tools do — it invents assumptions that look convincing. It generates round numbers and analyses that fit anyone. That's exactly what evaluators recognise at first glance, because they've read hundreds of such plans.
If you don't know where your figures come from, neither will ChatGPT. And that is exactly what HZZ evaluators recognise very quickly.
The tool is a good assistant. But the business logic — the kind that connects market, model and figures — you still have to bring yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Can I just download an example of a business plan for the HZZ and copy it? You can, but it's the riskiest path. A copied plan describes someone else's figures that you can't defend when asked about them — and that question almost always comes.
How do I fill in the business plan for the HZZ if I've never written such a document? Go in the order in which the form poses the questions and, with each one, ask yourself "what does this prove?". The plan isn't graded like an essay, but like business thinking.
How long does the business plan have to be? There's no prescribed length. A shorter but consistent plan is almost always stronger than a long document full of general phrases.
What does the HZZ look at most? Logic, consistency, the realism of the figures and the connectedness of the chapters. It looks for proof that the business can stand on its own feet.
Do the financial projections have to be accurate? Not to the euro — it's a projection. But they must be realistic and mutually consistent: revenue stems from the number of customers, profit from revenue and costs.
What if I think I have no competition? Almost every activity has competition, at least indirect. The claim that there's none usually means you haven't researched the market enough.
Is it enough to fill in all the fields in the form? Filling in the fields is the minimum, not the goal. A document in which the chapters don't hold together is weaker than a shorter plan with clear logic.
Can I use ChatGPT to write the plan? As help with structure and language — yes. As a substitute for knowing your own figures and strategy — no.
What's the most common mistake that makes a plan unconvincing? Inconsistency between chapters. When one part claims one thing and another claims something else, the evaluator starts doubting the whole document.
How do I know if my plan is good enough? Read it as if it were someone else's. If, after reading, you'd invest your own money in that idea, you're on the right track. If something chafes, it probably chafes the evaluator too.
This guide deliberately contains no ready-made answers to copy. A quality business plan doesn't arise from copying someone else's sentences, but from understanding the business logic behind them.
Conclusion
It's easy to view the business plan as an administrative hurdle to be dealt with. But to approach it that way is to miss the most valuable thing the process offers.
You don't actually write the business plan for the HZZ. You write it for yourself. It's the first serious test of your idea — a chance to check on paper whether everything holds water before you invest time, money and months of your life. If the idea falls on paper, it's better it falls there than in reality.
The most important question isn't whether the business plan will satisfy the HZZ. The most important question is whether, after reading it, you would invest your own money in that business idea.
By now you probably understand what the HZZ expects and how to approach each part of the form. But one realisation usually comes only when you sit down to write: connecting the market analysis, the business model and the financial projections into a whole in which everything holds together is harder than it looks. You can write each chapter individually. Making them confirm one another — that's a skill that comes with experience. If, before writing, you want to soberly check the idea itself, the guide what to check before you invest money in a business idea is also useful.
If, after reading this guide, you thought "now I understand how to approach the business plan", the guide has fulfilled its purpose. If you thought "now I can copy a ready-made business plan", then you've missed its main message.
At Meridian Consulting we don't view the business plan as a document to be written, but as an idea to be checked. If in that part you need someone who has been through the process from both sides of the table, we're here.
Author: Dominik Prelec, mag. oec. — founder of Meridian Consulting, an external business and procurement partner to self-employed entrepreneurs, sole traders and small and medium enterprises. Through years of work in operations, procurement and business development, he has taken part in preparing and assessing business plans from both sides of the table. Meridian Consulting | OIB 31067370742