A plan that answers what HZZ actually evaluates.
HZZ — the Croatian Employment Service — runs a self-employment grant for registered unemployed people starting their own business. Meridian prepares the business plan, financial projections, cost breakdown and supporting documentation within an agreed scope. Meridian is not HZZ and cannot promise approval.
Download the Meridian guide to the HZZ form before you start writing
How to Fill In the Business Plan for the HZZ? A Step-by-Step Guide Through the Form. A step-by-step guide to what the evaluator looks for and how the plan's sections connect.
Four parts that have to hold together.
HZZ makes the grant decision; a prepared plan does not mean guaranteed approval.
What has to be clear before anything is written
- Whether you meet the formal conditions of the current call
- Which activity you are registering and under which legal form
- What the money is intended for and how it will be documented
- Whether the planned costs are eligible under the programme
- Whether the idea holds up commercially, not only on paper
- What you can actually prove with documents
A strong plan cannot correct formal ineligibility.
Before writing, three questions stay separate: whether you meet the basic conditions, how many objective points you can prove, and how developed the project itself is.
- Formal conditions and the registered activity
- Points supported by documents available today
- The commercial quality and internal consistency of the project
- Costs, investment and operating assumptions that can be explained
What complete preparation covers
- Applicant, experience, activity and documentary risks
- Offer, customers, competition, pricing and operating model
- Bottom-up revenue, costs, investment and cost plan
- Consistency review, evidence list and the agreed round of revisions
From an initial review to a submitted set of documents
- 01Initial review — your situation, the activity and the formal conditions.
- 02Business logic — customers, prices, capacity and the way you will work.
- 03Numbers — projections, cost breakdown and the investment plan.
- 04Documentation — the plan and supporting materials within the agreed scope.
- 05Review — inconsistencies, weak points and risk flags before submission.
- 06Handover — you submit the application; we explain what each part claims.
You leave with a complete, internally consistent application set.
Within the agreed scope, preparation leaves behind:
- A written business plan structured for the programme
- Two-year financial projections built on assumptions you can defend
- A cost breakdown and investment plan for the intended use of funds
- An explanation of why the planned activity is viable
- A check of the formal conditions you state and can prove
- Flagged risks and weak points before submission
- A review and rework of an existing plan when that is the agreed scope
- A clear view of what you still need to obtain or prove yourself
Meridian does not decide on the application. Eligibility, deadlines and scoring follow the official rules of the current HZZ call.
Two core services
Complete HZZ business-plan preparation
Professional preparation from the initial review through the final narrative, projections and cost plan.
Request a scope reviewReview and rework
For a plan developed enough to review. A substantially unfinished plan is scoped as preparation, not a simple revision.
Send an initial enquiryMeridian prepares the plan, the calculator is a first check, and Navigator is in private testing.
These are not three packages of the same service: one is an advisory service we provide for you, one is a software product in private testing, and one is a free orientation tool.
Meridian prepares and structures your application
Eligibility and evidence-backed points, the business plan, projections, cost plan and agreed supporting material — with a professional consistency review across the application.
Meridian Navigator — prepare the plan yourself
The product guides the same plan areas, financial tables, cost plan and supporting material. It is currently in private testing and is not publicly available.
Ask about accessScoring calculator — a first check
The Croatian tool separates stated points, points you can currently document and points you might document after concrete actions. It does not assess project points automatically.
After the result, the next step may be plan preparation or review — describe your situation.
Clear boundaries around this service
What Meridian does
- Preparing the business plan, projections and cost breakdown
- Reviewing and reworking an existing plan when it is developed enough
- Explaining what the programme asks for and what your documents claim
- Flagging risks and inconsistencies before submission
What Meridian does not do
- Any form of guaranteed approval or promised score
- Acting on behalf of, or in partnership with, HZZ
- Submitting an application in your name without your confirmation of the facts
- Statements about your status that you cannot document
Common questions
What is HZZ?
HZZ (Hrvatski zavod za zapošljavanje) is the Croatian Employment Service. Its self-employment grant supports registered unemployed people who start their own business. Meridian is an independent consultancy and is not part of HZZ or affiliated with it.
Can you guarantee the application will be approved?
No. We can prepare the plan responsibly and flag risks, but the decision is made by HZZ based on its official rules, the documentation and its assessment of the project.
Can you estimate my score?
We can separate the objective points you state from the ones you can currently prove. The quality of the business plan and the project section are not reducible to an automatic total.
Can I order only a review of my existing plan?
Yes, if the plan is developed enough for a professional review. An unfinished document that needs to be written from scratch is not presented as a simple revision.
How long does preparation take?
It depends on the complexity of the project and how quickly you provide information. The exact timeline is confirmed in the offer after an initial scope assessment.
Can you write the plan without my involvement?
Not responsibly. You have to confirm the facts, prices, way of working and all personal or business data.
Tell us where you are in the process.
Whether you are checking the conditions, starting from scratch or reworking an existing plan, we will tell you what a reasonable scope looks like.
Request HZZ preparationThe first conversation is informal and without obligation.