Florida's disclosure law
Since 1 January 2024, the Florida Commercial Financing Disclosure Law has required providers offering $500,000 or less to a Florida business to disclose, before the deal is signed, the total amount of funds provided, the total amount actually disbursed after fees, the total to be repaid, the total dollar cost of the financing, the payment schedule, and whether a prepayment carries any charge. Florida chose total dollar cost over an annual percentage rate, which is easier to read but easier to be misled by: a $20,000 cost on a six month deal and a $20,000 cost on an eighteen month deal are very different prices. We print the equivalent annual rate next to the dollar cost on every Florida offer for that reason.
The same law sets rules for brokers: no false or misleading statements, and no charging a business a fee for a deal that is not completed. A Florida owner asked to pay anything up front to a broker should walk away.
The Florida year
Two seasons shape a Florida business file. Tourist season, from Thanksgiving to Easter, carries the restaurants, hotels, charter boats, rentals and retail of the coasts; the summer is thin. Hurricane season, June to November, can close a business for a week or a quarter. Lenders know both. A lender reading a Fort Myers restaurant's statements will look for the summer dip and ask how it was covered, and will want to know whether the business has a plan for a storm beyond hoping.
The right instrument for the first is a line of credit arranged in March for July. For the second, the state's Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan program, activated after declared disasters, offers short zero interest bridge loans while insurance and SBA disaster loans are processed. We mention it to every Florida client because most have never heard of it.
The Florida market
Florida adds businesses at nearly the Texas rate, with a different mix: hospitality, construction, roofing after every storm, landscaping, marine, healthcare for a population that keeps ageing, and logistics through Miami and Jacksonville. Advance funders are thick on the ground in South Florida, and stacking is as common here as in New York. Banks and credit unions lend readily on equipment and real estate, and the SBA's South Florida and North Florida district offices are among the busiest in the country.
What Florida lenders look at
Statements, with attention to the seasonal pattern rather than any single month. Proof of insurance, including wind coverage where it applies, for equipment and real estate loans. For hospitality, merchant processing statements that show card volume through the season. For contractors and roofers, licenses and the general contractors they work for. Lenders mark down businesses that took an advance to cover a summer and are still paying it in December.
The plain recommendation for a Florida business
Arrange the seasonal line in the strong months. Never pay a broker up front; the law forbids it. Read the total dollar cost on an advance offer and divide by the term before deciding it is reasonable. Know the emergency bridge loan program before the storm, not after. Let the SBA carry the second location or the building. And bring any offer to us before signing; we read Florida paper all day and it costs you nothing.