Start a landscaping business in Florida

Your name must include "LLC" or "L.L.C." and be distinguishable from existing Florida entities. Search current records on Sunbiz before filing. The Division of Corporations rejects names that conflict with an active registration.

Florida requires a registered agent with a physical street address in the state. You can act as your own agent, which makes your address public. A commercial agent lists theirs instead. The agent must sign or electronically accept the designation on your filing.

File online at Sunbiz. The e-filing start screen opens with a disclaimer worth reading as written: once submitted, the Articles cannot be changed, canceled, or refunded. Accept it, click "Start New Filing," enter your name exactly as searched, list your principal address, and pay by card. The $125 total covers the $100 filing fee plus the $25 registered agent designation. Online filings are typically processed in 2–5 business days.

Apply for an Employer Identification Number on the IRS website after the LLC is approved. It is free and takes about ten minutes online; you need it for banking, hiring, and taxes. Ignore any site that charges for an EIN.

Florida doesn't require an operating agreement, but banks routinely ask for one and it fixes ownership and profit splits in writing. Single-member LLCs can use a short standard form; multi-member LLCs should document splits and exit terms.

Florida has no general statewide business license, but most counties and many cities require a local Business Tax Receipt before you operate. For landscaping specifically: Florida draws the regulatory line at the surface, not at a license threshold. FDACS restricts a landscape maintenance company to fertilizer applications on turf; it may cut, mow, edge, blow, and hand-pull anywhere without any pesticide credential. Applying anything else, herbicide in plant beds or insecticide/fungicide where the statute allows it, needs the Limited Certification for Commercial Landscape Maintenance under s. 482.156 F.S., which certifies the individual applicator rather than the company. The allowed products are capped by hazard label, not gallon count: no signal word, or the signal word "caution," and never "warning" or "danger." The statute itself sets no equipment size, naming only "portable, handheld application equipment and backpack sprayers," not power equipment; FDACS's own guidance separately describes that as roughly 3-gallon compressed-air sprayers and 5-gallon backpack sprayers, a figure worth knowing but not written into the law. The certification does not authorize turf application, running a pest control business, or supervising uncertified staff. It recertifies annually: a 30-day grace period carries a $50 late fee, and a separate 60-day cutoff forces full reexamination rather than a simple renewal. Fertilizer runs on its own, unrelated credential: since 1 January 2014, anyone applying commercial fertilizer to an urban landscape needs a Green Industries Best Management Practices training certificate under s. 403.9338, priced $25 to $75, good for 4 years, and renewed with 4 classroom hours including at least 2 on fertilizer practices.

Florida LLCs must file an annual report on Sunbiz between January 1 and May 1 ($138.75); missing the window adds a steep late fee. Open a separate business bank account with your filed articles and EIN to keep liability protection intact.