Businesses in Florida: 645,575 establishments, the biggest headquarters and how to check one

This page is for people dealing with Florida businesses: checking a contractor or supplier, researching an employer, sizing a regional market, or building a list of companies to sell to. It covers how to check a business first, then the state's business base from Census data, then its largest headquarters.

How to check a Florida business

For licensed trades and professions, the DBPR record matters more than the corporate one: a company can be active on Sunbiz while its license has lapsed. DBPR also offers a free download of general licensee information, including mailing addresses, by license group, which is a ready-made list for anyone selling to a licensed profession.

How many businesses are in Florida

The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) counts every business location with paid employees. For Florida in 2023:

In bands: 570,735 establishments with 1 to 19 employees, 62,356 with 20 to 99 and 12,484 with 100 or more.

The ten largest counties by establishment count, from the CBP county file:

Orange County (Orlando) has fewer than half Miami-Dade's establishments but 80% of its employment, so its employers are much larger on average. For regional detail, see the reports on construction companies in Miami and construction companies in Orlando.

The PEO effect

The biggest sector by employment in Florida isn't health care or retail. It's administrative and support services, with 2,373,309 employees, and most of those are in a single industry: professional employer organizations (NAICS 561330), which report 1,684,968 employees at 592 Florida establishments.

PEOs co-employ their clients' staff: the Census Bureau's definition says they take on payroll, payroll taxes, benefits and workers' compensation for some or all of a client's employees and act as their employer for those purposes. So many people counted under a Florida PEO actually work at restaurants, medical practices or software firms, which means CBP undercounts employment in those industries and overcounts it in administrative services. Florida has 44.6% of all PEO employees in the US (3,777,023).

Average pay is our calculation from CBP payroll. CBP counts establishments rather than companies, excludes the self-employed, and measures employment in the pay period including March 12, 2023.

The biggest companies headquartered in Florida

The 15 largest SEC-registered companies whose latest 10-K names a Florida principal executive office, by revenue reported in that filing:

Publix's shares aren't listed on an exchange, but it reports to the SEC and its 10-K describes it as the largest employee-owned company in the US, with more than 260,000 employees. Raymond James's figure is total revenues; its net revenues were $14.07 billion. Carnival Corporation lists principal executive offices in both Miami and Southampton, England.

One company often counted as Floridian is missing: TD SYNNEX says it has headquarters in both Clearwater and Fremont, California, and its 10-K cover gives Fremont. Its $62.51 billion in revenue would otherwise put it second. Private companies don't publish results, so they're not ranked.

Selling to Florida businesses

Florida's market is regional: the southeast coast (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach), Tampa Bay, Orlando, Jacksonville and the Gulf Coast behave like separate markets with their own industry mix. Seasonality matters too: hurricane season, June through November, shapes when buyers will commit to building and equipment projects.

The PEO effect matters for targeting. A company using a PEO may have outsourced payroll, benefits and HR administration, so it won't buy those from you, but its owner or general manager still makes every other purchase.

Illustrative example. The company, rates and results are fictional, to show the method.

Gulfside Power (gulfside.example) installs standby generators for businesses in Lee and Sarasota counties.

• Statewide establishments with 20 to 99 employees: 46,967 + 15,389 = 62,356.
• Lee and Sarasota hold 6.0% of the state's establishments, so Gulfside estimates about 3,740 there.
• It needs owners of their buildings, which it assumes is 30%: about 1,120 accounts.
• It works them from February to May, before hurricane season, when outage memories are fresh and installs can finish in time.

Separating owners from tenants takes research on each site. Bebop can search for "Lee and Sarasota County businesses with 20 to 99 employees that own their building" and say why each fits.

Subject: Keeping [Company] open after the next storm

Hi [first name],

Last season, businesses in [Fort Myers / Sarasota] with standby power reopened days before neighbors waiting on the grid. For a [clinic / restaurant / distributor] your size, that's often the difference between a lost week and a normal one.

We size, permit and install commercial generators in Lee and Sarasota counties, and we can finish a spring install before June. Would a free site assessment be useful?

[Your name], Gulfside Power

Next step: turn a county and size band into a working list with how to build a prospect list.