Small business loans Florida owners can get include revenue-based financing that typically funds within one to two business days of choosing an offer, lines of credit, equipment financing, and longer bank and SBA-equivalent loans through partners. After a declared disaster, check the state's Emergency Bridge Loan and SBA disaster loans first, though we do not place those. Today Capital Group is a national broker based in Woodland Hills, California, and we work with Florida businesses. Every funder sets its own rules, including where it works.
The SBA Office of Advocacy's 2025 Florida small business profile counts 3.5 million small businesses, 99.8% of the state's businesses, employing 3.8 million people, or 39.6% of Florida's employees. Accommodation and food services is the largest small business employer at 563,099 jobs, and small firms hold 82.5% of Florida's construction jobs.
Small business loans Florida owners can choose from
| What the money is for | Product that usually fits | How fast | How it is repaid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stock and hiring before your season, or reopening after a storm | Revenue-based financing, $5,000 to $2,000,000 | Typically one to two business days after choosing an offer | A set daily or weekly payment |
| Payroll and rent through the slow months | Line of credit up to $2,000,000 | Offers in one to two business days | Weekly or monthly, on what you have drawn |
| A walk-in cooler, a marina forklift or a roofing truck | Equipment financing up to $500,000 | Offers typically in one to two business days | Set payments over the term |
| A hotel renovation or a second location | SBA-equivalent or bank loan through partners | Weeks | Monthly payments over years |
| Cash from a commercial building you hold | Commercial equity loan or line | Commonly weeks, because of the appraisal | Monthly, or on what you draw |
| Several daily debits from existing advances | Consolidation | Varies by funder | One weekly or monthly payment on a longer term |
Revenue-based financing is a merchant cash advance. A funder buys part of your future sales in advance, sizes the amount on your usual revenue and collects a set daily or weekly payment until the agreed total is paid. The decision rests mainly on four months of business bank statements, and it usually needs no collateral. A factor rate sets the cost, so you know the total in dollars before you sign. Our guide to how to get a business loan walks through the steps if you are starting from scratch.
Your slow season depends on where in Florida you are
Florida has more than one season. Bureau of Labor Statistics job counts for leisure and hospitality, not seasonally adjusted, show the Panhandle peaking in early summer and Southwest Florida peaking in late winter, while Miami moves far less and Orlando hardly moves at all. Destin follows the Panama City pattern and Fort Myers follows the Naples one.
| Area, 2025 jobs | Highest month | Lowest month | Swing, low to high |
|---|---|---|---|
| Panama City | June, 16,800 | January, 13,800 | 22% |
| Naples | February and March, 36,200 | September, 29,700 | 22% |
| Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach | March, 362,000 | September, 336,800 | 7% |
| Orlando | November, 297,700 | January, 288,100 | 3% |
VISIT FLORIDA's 2025 estimates show the whole state leaning toward winter, with about 41 million of the year's 143.3 million visitors in the first quarter and about 34 million in each of the others. These are job and visitor counts rather than sales, so your own deposits are the better guide.
That matters because revenue-based funders read your last four months of statements. A Naples restaurant applying in October shows June through September, the quietest stretch of its year, and a Panama City Beach shop applying in February shows October through January. Our guide to seasonal business loans covers how to size a payment and build a seasonal file, and these are the Florida dates to run those steps on.
- In Southwest Florida, a line of credit set up around April still has January through April on the statements, and you can draw on it from August through October.
- On the Panhandle, a line set up around August has the summer on the statements, and you can draw on it from December through February.
If you run a hotel, motel or venue, our guide to hospitality financing covers renovations and property improvement plans.
Money after a hurricane, in the order to check it
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, so in Southwest Florida it sits on top of the slowest months. The National Hurricane Center puts Hurricane Ian's damage above $112 billion, the costliest hurricane in Florida's history. After Hurricane Milton reached Siesta Key in October 2024, leisure and hospitality jobs in the Tampa and St. Petersburg area went from 168,900 in September to 154,700 in October, then back to 165,300 in November.
Start with your insurance claim
The SBA says its physical damage loans cover losses not fully covered by insurance, and that insurance proceeds on business property may be deducted from the eligible amount, so the claim comes first. Florida also has a rule that touches contractors directly. Under section 627.7152(13) of the Florida Statutes, a policyholder may not assign post-loss benefits under a residential or commercial property policy issued on or after January 1, 2023, so a roofer on those jobs generally cannot take over the owner's claim and bill the insurer. That wait for the owner's money belongs in the cash plan.
Check the Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan
FloridaCommerce's bridge program offers short-term, zero-interest personal loans from state funds, meant to carry a business until longer-term money such as an insurance payment arrives. They are not grants, they must be repaid, and we do not place them. Each activation sets its own counties, limits and deadline. The activation for Hurricane Isaias, announced on October 11, 2026, made $10 million available in 30 named counties, with loans up to $100,000 ($150,000 for agriculture and aquaculture) and a deadline of November 25, 2026 or whenever the funds are exhausted. Lee and Collier counties were not on that list. The governor's office reported more than $4.5 million approved within 10 days, so apply quickly if your county is named, and check FloridaJobs.org/DisasterRecovery/EBL for the current status.
Check SBA disaster loans
We do not place these either, so check the SBA's disaster loan page for your declaration. Physical damage loans go up to $2 million for real estate, machinery, equipment, inventory and leasehold improvements. Economic injury loans provide working capital to small businesses that cannot get credit elsewhere, and a business can hold both up to a combined $2 million. Both defer the first payment for 12 months with no interest accruing in that time and can run up to 30 years. The rate is capped at 4%, or at 8% on physical damage loans to applicants who can get credit elsewhere. Neither pays to expand a business beyond what building codes require, so a bigger rebuild needs other money.
Ask the Florida SBDC Network for help
The Florida SBDC Network offers no-cost, confidential consulting from more than 40 offices between Pensacola and Key West, serving all 67 counties. Disaster preparedness and recovery and capital access are both on its list of services, so call if you are unsure which programs your business fits.
Add private funding when the timing does not work
Claims, state loans and SBA reviews all run on someone else's schedule, and a business that has to reopen or pay a crew this week may not be able to wait. Revenue-based financing, a line of credit and equipment financing fit that gap, and our guide to same day business funding explains what decides how fast the money lands. Add a short note giving the dates you were closed, because a funder reading your statements will see the gap in deposits, and mark which deposits were insurance or loan money rather than sales. Tell every lender about every other payment and application, including an SBA disaster loan in process.
A worked example for a Gulf Coast restaurant
The figures below are examples only, not a quote or the terms of any funder. Say a restaurant near Naples does about $1,300,000 a year in sales, a usual week of $25,000, with about $34,000 in a March week and about $16,000 in a September week. In mid-October the owner wants $75,000 to replace a walk-in cooler and pay for stock and hiring before the winter season, and takes a revenue-based advance.
| Example advance | Figure |
|---|---|
| Amount advanced | $75,000 |
| Factor rate | 1.30 |
| Total payback | $97,500 |
| Cost | $22,500 |
| Set weekly payment | $2,500 for 39 weeks |
The payment is set and sized on a usual week, so the same $2,500 goes out every week. That is 10% of a usual week, 7.4% of a March week and 15.6% of a September week. Signed in mid-October, the 39 weeks finish in mid-July, before the next September arrives. Signed in May, they would run through August, September and October, so compare start dates as well as prices. If $2,500 looks heavy against a $16,000 week, ask for less, since $50,000 at the same factor rate and term is $65,000 in total and about $1,667 a week. Ask too whether the contract has a reconciliation clause, which our guide to the merchant cash advance contract explains, and see restaurant financing for other ways to pay for a kitchen.
Now say a roofer in Fort Myers books a run of repairs after a storm and has to pay for materials and crews before the owners' claims pay. With usual deposits of $32,000 a week, an example advance of $60,000 at a factor rate of 1.28 comes to $76,800 in total, a cost of $16,800, with a set payment of $3,200 a week for 24 weeks.
What Florida's disclosure law says you should see before you sign
Florida's Commercial Financing Disclosure Law, sections 559.961 to 559.9615 of the Florida Statutes, applies to commercial financing consummated on or after January 1, 2024. Under section 559.9613, the provider must give you a written disclosure at or before consummation, and it has six parts.
- It states the total funds provided under the agreement.
- It states what reaches you, if fees withheld, a prior balance paid off or money sent to third parties make that less.
- It states the total you will pay the provider.
- It states the total dollar cost, the difference between what you pay and the funds provided.
- It gives how, how often and how much you pay, or, if payments can vary, the method and the estimated first payment.
- It says whether paying early brings a cost or a discount, and names the contract provision that covers it.
The law covers commercial loans, commercial open-end credit plans and accounts receivable purchases. A merchant cash advance is written as a purchase, so ask for the disclosure on an advance as you would on a loan. Section 559.9612 leaves out deals above $500,000, federally insured banks and their affiliates, financing secured by real property and leases, among other exceptions. The Attorney General has exclusive authority to enforce it. This is general information and not legal advice, so take a specific contract to a Florida attorney.
Ask for those six figures on every offer, including one the law does not cover, because they put different products on the same page.
Longer loans and SBA programs in Florida
Through our partners we offer SBA-equivalent and bank loans with long terms and monthly payments, and the partner sets the rate, term and collateral. These loans sit outside the SBA program, so they can even pay off existing merchant cash advances, and they take weeks because the file usually needs tax returns, a personal financial statement and a debt schedule.
Real SBA programs are a separate route, and we do not place them. The 7(a) program guarantees loans of up to $5 million for uses including working capital, equipment and real estate, and the 504 program provides long-term, fixed-rate financing for major fixed assets. The SBA's North Florida district office covers 43 counties from Jacksonville and Orlando, and its South Florida office covers 24 from Miami, Fort Pierce and Tampa.
Florida also taxes the paperwork on these loans. The Department of Revenue charges documentary stamp tax of 35 cents per $100 on promissory notes, capped at $2,450, and the same rate on recorded mortgages with no cap. An obligation secured by Florida real property also carries nonrecurring intangible tax of 2 mills, which the lender owes and may pass to the borrower. As an example, a $400,000 commercial equity loan secured by a recorded Florida mortgage would carry $1,400 in stamp tax and $800 in intangible tax, so ask to see both on the closing statement.
How to apply from Florida
Start with the short application and four months of business bank statements, uploaded as PDFs or emailed to us. Tell us your county and your busy months, and if a storm is part of the story, the dates you closed and what insurance has paid. Getting matched does not need a hard credit pull, since most funders prequalify from bank statements and a soft pull. The funders we work with generally look for about a year in business and about $20,000 a month in deposits. If you're not there yet, apply anyway, because some funders work with newer or smaller businesses and we'll tell you what's realistic. Offers come back side by side, and we go through them with you before anything is signed. There is nothing to pay to apply or to see offers. To talk it through first, call (818) 351-0225.
Frequently asked questions
Are there small business loans in Florida for hurricane damage?
Yes, after a declared disaster a Florida business can look at SBA disaster loans of up to $2 million and, when FloridaCommerce has activated it for that storm and county, the zero-interest Emergency Bridge Loan; we do not place either one, but we arrange revenue-based financing, lines of credit and equipment financing while those programs and insurance claims are pending.
How does a merchant cash advance work in Florida?
A merchant cash advance in Florida is a sale of part of your future sales for a lump sum, sized on your usual revenue and repaid with a set daily or weekly payment until the agreed total is paid, and on deals of $500,000 or less Florida's Commercial Financing Disclosure Law generally requires a written disclosure of the funds, total payback and dollar cost at or before signing.
Can a Florida business get funding during the slow season?
Yes, though a file sent in the slow season shows your weakest months, usually around September in Southwest Florida and January on the Panhandle going by job counts, so send a full year of statements or set up a line of credit while your busy months are still on your last four months of statements.
How long does a small business loan take in Florida?
Revenue-based financing is typically funded within one to two business days of choosing an offer, SBA-equivalent, bank and commercial equity loans usually take weeks, and the state bridge loan and SBA disaster loans run on those agencies' own timetables.
