Why we rejected 4 clients in the last month?
In October 2024, the Meridian Greater Poland office in Poznań received 11 inquiries about help in obtaining EU subsidies for the modernization of machinery. After a thorough analysis of the documents, we signed contracts with 7 entities, and we had to refuse 4 people. This was not a result of a lack of time, but a hard calculation of risk, because we know the land and the numbers.
First case: Lack of order in documents
The first client, a farmer from near Środa Wielkopolska, came to us on October 3 with a request to prepare an application for the amount of 243,000 PLN. The problem was that his legal situation regarding the land had been unregulated for nearly 4 years. Although he promised us 'to settle the matter in a week', we knew from experience that procedures in land and mortgage register courts currently take an average of 5 months. At Meridian Greater Poland, we do not take advances if we know that an application will fail at the first formal stage.
Instead of taking money for preparing documentation that would end up in the trash, we gave him a list of 3 specific matters to settle with a notary. We lost a potential profit of 4,800 PLN net for the preparation of the application alone, but we saved face. We watch the deadlines for you, but we cannot jump over legal regulations if the foundations are holey. The client will return to us in March 2025, when his papers are clean and ready to fight for funds.
We don't take money for applications that have an 88.8% chance of rejection at the very start.
Second case: Forced GlobalGAP certification
The second client runs a medium-sized vegetable farm near Kalisz and wanted to enter retail chains with a GlobalGAP certificate in 12 days. This is physically impossible. The auditors we have been working with since September 2016 have schedules written out for 37 days in advance. An attempt to 'push through' certification without real implementation of hygiene procedures would end in a fine and a delivery ban, which could cost this farm up to 82,000 PLN in losses in one season.
We explained to the owner that food certification is not just a sticker on the package, but a real change in the way goods are stored. We proposed a realistic schedule: preparation in 14 days, internal audit in the third week and official certification in November. The client decided it was too long and went to the competition, which promised him a 'solution off the shelf'. We know that such promises end in problems at the first inspection from the Commercial Quality Inspection.
Third and fourth reason: Unrealistic financial goals
Another two refusals concerned food companies from Poznań and Luboń that wanted to apply for subsidies for exports to non-EU countries. After analyzing their balances from 2023, we noticed that their financial liquidity was too low to maintain the project for the first 8 months before the payment of the first tranche from the fund. A subsidy is a refund, not free cash to start. If a company does not have 118,000 PLN of free funds for its own contribution, the project will drown in the middle of implementation.
You get facts, not promises – this is our main principle. Saying 'yes' to these companies would mean driving them into a credit loop that they might not survive. Since 2017, we have served 423 clients and none of them went bankrupt due to a poorly chosen subsidy program. We prefer to have 4 fewer clients in a given month than one lawsuit for erroneous financial advice. Our reputation in Greater Poland is based on the fact that we can advise against harmful investments.
A subsidy is a refund, not free cash. Without your own contribution, the project will not start.
Why does such honesty pay off for us?
Many advisors in the industry take every client who has a NIP and will. We at Meridian Greater Poland act differently. The average response time to an inquiry with us is 2h 14min, because we immediately move on to the verification of facts. If we see that a business plan does not add up, we say it straight during the first meeting at Półwiejska. Thanks to this, 94.6% of our applications pass positive verification in marshal offices and government agencies.
Honesty builds an order portfolio for years, not for one quarter. In 2024, we recovered a total of 4.7 million PLN for our clients from unjustly charged penalties and previously rejected applications that we corrected after other companies. Each of these cases began with a hard assessment of chances. If you are looking for someone who will tell you what you want to hear, Meridian Greater Poland is not for you. If you want to know how much you can realistically earn and what risk you have – we invite you for a coffee.
