10. Check Whether Florida Regulates Your Activity
There is no universal "Florida business license." There are four separate layers, and people confuse them constantly:
- Entity formation creates the company.
- Professional or industry licensing authorizes a regulated activity.
- Zoning decides whether the activity can happen at a particular address.
- Business tax receipts are the local tax on doing business. They do not certify that anyone is qualified to do anything.
Who regulates what, with fees as of October 2026:
| If you are opening | You need | From |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant, café or catering business | Food service license. $50 application plus $262 a year for 1 to 49 seats. Plan review is free. | DBPR Hotels and Restaurants, 850-487-1395 |
| Food truck | State mobile food license. $50 application plus $347 a year. | DBPR Hotels and Restaurants |
| Anything selling alcohol | State beverage license, with a zoning sign-off from the City | DBPR Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco |
| Grocery, convenience store, retail bakery, food processing | Food permit | FDACS, 1-800-435-7352 |
| Baking or making shelf-stable food at home | No permit under the cottage food law, up to $250,000 a year in sales, sold direct to consumers and labeled | FDACS rules |
| Salon, barbershop, contractor, real estate, accounting | Professional or establishment license | DBPR |
| Tattoo or body piercing | Establishment and artist licenses | Florida Department of Health in Polk County, 863-519-8330 |
| Pest control, moving, health studio, travel sales | Registration or license | FDACS |
Local rules stack on top for two of these.
Alcohol. City code bars alcohol service within 500 feet of a church or school. Restaurants serving it with meals, beer and wine bars, and bars in the Downtown Mixed-Use district are excepted. Downtown allows up to three bars by right and more by special exception. Ask Planning before you lease.
Food trucks. City code limits where and when a truck can set up: on an improved commercial or industrial lot with the owner's written permission, only while the host business is open, never on a vacant lot, no customer tables and chairs, and no vending between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. The same code section still lists a $50 City permit, a $50 site registration and a $25 vehicle registration. State law (section 509.102) has barred cities from requiring their own permits or fees for state-licensed food trucks since July 2020. Ask Development Services what they actually require before you pay.