How to start a florist business in the USA: the 2026 guide to licenses, taxes, certifications and your first customers

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At a glance: what you need in the US

Step 1: Decide what kind of florist you’ll be

Your niche decides your suppliers, your prices, your hours and your marketing. Most new florists start with one or two of these and add more later.

Step 2: Choose a business structure

• Sole proprietor: the default when you start selling on your own. Nothing to file to form it, and your profit goes on Schedule C of your personal tax return. You are personally responsible for the business’s debts.
• Single-member LLC: filed with your state, usually through the Secretary of State, for a fee that varies by state. It helps keep business debts and claims apart from your personal assets, as long as you keep separate business accounts. By default the IRS taxes it like a sole proprietorship, so your tax return barely changes.
• Partnership or multi-member LLC: for two or more owners. Write down who does what and who owns what before you start.
• S corporation election: some profitable florists elect it later to reduce self-employment tax. Ask an accountant once your profit is steady; it adds payroll and paperwork.

If you trade under a name that isn’t your own legal name, register it as a DBA (“doing business as”) with your state or county. Check that the name is free as a web address and an Instagram handle first; the free flower shop name generator can help you brainstorm.

Step 3: Licenses, permits and registrations

1. 1

   EIN (Employer Identification Number)

   Free from the IRS online, in minutes. You need one for an LLC with employees, a partnership or a corporation; a sole proprietor can use their Social Security number, but an EIN keeps it off W-9s and wholesale forms.

2. 2

   Seller’s permit (sales tax)

   45 states and Washington, DC have a statewide sales tax, and fresh flowers and arrangements are generally taxable. Register with your state’s tax department before your first sale, then collect and file sales tax on its schedule.

3. 3

   Resale certificate

   With a seller’s permit, you give wholesalers a resale certificate so you don’t pay sales tax on flowers you will resell. Many wholesalers ask for one before they sell to you at wholesale prices.

4. 4

   City or county business license

   Many cities and counties require a general business license, and zoning rules decide whether customers can collect from your home. Ask your city hall or county clerk.

5. 5

   Louisiana only: floral dealer permit

   Louisiana was the only state with a florist exam and license. A 2024 law (Act 643) replaced them with a floral dealer permit from the state Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

6. 6

   Selling live plants?

   If you also sell potted plants, some states require a nursery or plant dealer license from the state agriculture department. Check before you add them to your menu.

7. 7

   Market stalls and events

   Farmers’ markets and pop-ups usually need the market’s approval and sometimes a temporary vendor permit. Some states also need a temporary sales tax registration.

Step 4: Taxes every new florist should know

• Form 1099-K: payment apps and marketplaces such as Square, Stripe and Etsy may report your sales to the IRS on a 1099-K. All business income is taxable whether or not you get one.
• Self-employment tax: 15.3% (12.4% Social Security and 2.9% Medicare) on 92.35% of your net earnings, on top of income tax. You file Schedule SE once your net earnings reach $400.
• Quarterly estimated taxes: if you expect to owe $1,000 or more for the year, pay estimated tax four times a year (mid-April, mid-June, mid-September and mid-January) with Form 1040-ES. A common rule of thumb is to move 25–30% of every payment into a separate tax account, so the bill is never a surprise.
• Keep every receipt: flowers, vases, wrap, ribbon, tools, a cooler, delivery mileage, your website and apps like FlowerShoot are usually business expenses that lower your taxable profit.
• Home office: if part of your home is used regularly and only for the business, you may be able to deduct it. The IRS simplified method is $5 per square foot, up to 300 square feet.
• State and local taxes: most states also tax business income, and some cities do too.
• Hiring help for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day? Employees mean payroll taxes and, in most states, workers’ compensation insurance. Treating someone as a contractor when they work like an employee is a common and costly mistake.

Rules and numbers change, and every situation is different. This is general information, not tax or legal advice: a local accountant who works with small businesses is worth an hour of your time before your first busy season.

Step 5: Do you need a florist certification?

No US state requires a florist certification to sell flowers. Certifications are optional, but they build skills and give couples and corporate clients a reason to trust you, especially for weddings and events.

Step 6: Insurance

• General liability: covers injuries and damage at events, venues and markets. Many wedding venues ask for a certificate of insurance before you can set up.
• Commercial auto: a personal auto policy may not cover deliveries. Tell your insurer you use the car for business.
• Property and stock: a home policy often excludes business equipment, coolers and stock.
• Workers’ compensation: required in most states once you have employees.

Step 7: Buy flowers at wholesale prices

1. 1

   Local wholesalers

   Most cities have a flower wholesaler. Bring your seller’s permit and resale certificate to open an account, and ask about their buying days and minimums.

2. 2

   Flower markets

   Big cities have wholesale flower markets that open very early. Go once with a list and a budget before you buy in bulk.

3. 3

   Online wholesalers

   Box deliveries to your door, often with minimum orders. Useful outside big cities, but plan for a day of conditioning after delivery.

4. 4

   Local growers

   Seasonal, scented stems that travel less and make your work look different from supermarket bouquets. Search for growers near you through local farm and cut-flower directories.

Step 8: Price so the business pays you

New florists most often under-price, then work the busiest week of the year for almost nothing. A simple way many florists price: the cost of flowers and greenery times about 3, plus the vase or wrap times about 2, plus labor (often another 20–30% on top of that), then delivery. Weddings and events usually carry higher markups for the planning and on-site work. Add waste too: if one stem in ten goes in the compost, the stems you sell have to pay for it. Card fees of around 3% also come out of every sale.

The free flower pricing calculator does these sums for any design, including waste, and works out Standard, Deluxe and Premium prices you can put straight onto a florist menu.

Step 9: Photos are one of the most important parts of your business

Before anyone smells your roses, they see a photo. Customers order flowers online, on Instagram and on Google Maps by picture alone, and they judge your price by how the photo looks. A beautiful arrangement photographed on a kitchen counter, in yellow evening light, with the fridge in the background, looks cheaper than it is. For most orders you’ll ever take online, the photo is what makes the sale.

The trouble is that a phone photo rarely looks like a professional product photo, however good the flowers, and a photographer for every new design isn’t realistic when you’re starting out. That is why we built FlowerShoot: take one phone photo of your arrangement, choose a room made for flowers, and in about a minute you have a studio product photo that looks like an ad, with your real flowers and vase. No lights, backdrops, editing or reshoots, so the hours you’d spend setting up go back into designing and selling.

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Stand out on a small budget

You don’t need a photographer, a studio or a designer to look like an established shop. FlowerShoot is a low-cost tool made for florists that does three jobs every new flower business needs:

• Studio product photos: one phone photo of your arrangement becomes a studio photo in about a minute, in 200+ rooms made for flowers, with your real flowers and vase. Use one room for your whole menu and your shop looks consistent everywhere.
• Photos for your website and listings: sizes for your website, Etsy, Google and social media, cropped around your flowers so a stem is never cut off.
• Ready-made templates: product cards with your name and price, florist menus, and a Campaign kit with an Instagram post, Stories, a Pinterest pin and a banner for each occasion, plus captions and Etsy listing words, all with your logo.

Product cardMenuOrder-by post

Step 10: Set up where people order

• A Google Business Profile: free, and often the first thing local customers see. A home florist can hide the address and show a delivery area. Read Google Business Profile for florists.
• A simple website: with delivery dates, card messages at checkout and your best photos. See flower shop website photos.
• Instagram and Facebook: where people discover local florists. One good photo becomes a week of posts.
• A card reader and online payments: so no order is lost at a market or a pick-up.

Wire services and fake local florist websites

Wire services such as FTD, Teleflora and BloomNet can send you orders from other florists and websites, for fees and a share of each order. Read the contract carefully: fees, minimum monthly charges and the recipes you must match. Separately, some national websites (known as order gatherers) look like local shops in search results, take the order and a cut, and pass a smaller order to a real florist. The best defence is to be easy to find and order from directly: a claimed Google profile, your own website and photos people recognise as yours.

The US florist year

Get your holiday photos ready before the rush with Valentine’s menu photos and Mother’s Day menu photos.

Your first 30 days

1. 1

   Week 1: paperwork

   Choose your structure and name, get an EIN, register for a seller’s permit and check your city or county license.

2. 2

   Week 2: suppliers and designs

   Open a wholesale account, buy a small first batch, design three to five signature pieces and price them.

3. 3

   Week 3: photos and ordering

   Make your studio photos with FlowerShoot, build your menu and set up your Google Business Profile, website and payments.

4. 4

   Week 4: launch

   Tell people you know, deliver your first orders, add a card with your name to every one and ask happy customers for a Google review.

More help: how to start a flower business from home, how to start a flower business in Canada, the best apps for florists and florist marketing ideas ranked by cost.