Before you can register a fictitious name on Sunbiz, Florida makes you run a notice in a local paper. Once. In Polk County the notice usually runs in the Business Observer. Your notice runs in the next available edition. I handle the submission and send you the affidavit. Plan on one to two weeks. Keep the affidavit the paper sends back.
This applies if the business's principal place of business is anywhere in Polk County: Lakeland, Winter Haven, Bartow, Haines City, Auburndale, or unincorporated.
The papers
Business Observer. Prints Fridays.
The Ledger and The Lakeland Sun also qualify. Three papers, three forms, three price lists, and the notice has to match your Sunbiz filing character for character whichever one you choose.
The timeline
- Submit the notice to the Business Observer.
- The notice prints once.
- The paper sends the affidavit of publication. Keep it.
- Register your Fictitious Name (DBA) on Sunbiz, pay the state $50, and certify that you advertised.
That last step is a sworn statement. Nobody files the affidavit with the state, and nobody checks it — the application simply has you certify the notice ran.
But publication is part of what §865.09 requires, and the penalties for not complying with it are not theoretical: a second-degree misdemeanor, and a bar on your business bringing any action in a Florida court until it has. Contracts you’ve already signed stay valid, and you can still defend yourself — what you lose is the ability to enforce. The day you need to chase an unpaid invoice is a bad day to find that out.
Already registered on Sunbiz without publishing? The statute wants the notice before the filing, but the fix for doing it backwards is the same notice, run now. Publish it, keep the affidavit with your filing, and the gap is closed.
What it costs
A one-time notice in Florida runs up to about $135, depending on the paper and the length of the wording. Where Polk lands depends on the paper: ask for a quote on your exact notice. Each paper that qualifies quotes separately, so that is three quotes to compare. Registering the name with the state afterward is a separate $50, whichever paper you use.
The full walkthrough is in the Florida DBA publication guide.
Or have it handled
$75, newspaper fee included. I draft the notice, place it, and email you the affidavit. Registering the name on Sunbiz afterward is a separate $50, paid to the state. I can file that for you too — publication and registration together is $185.
What I need from you: the business's legal owner — your LLC's exact name, or your own full name if there is no entity — the address the notice will carry, and for an LLC or corporation its Florida document number. If you work from home or online, the address is your home: the physical place the business is actually run from, which is also what decides the county. Sunbiz will take a separate mailing address for its own letters, but the notice and the filing are public record, so the home address will be too.
After you file
- The Sunbiz step is yours or mine. $50 to the state, online. The form has you certify that the notice ran; nobody uploads the affidavit, so keep it with your records.
- It lasts five years. Renewal is due by December 31 of the fifth year: a form and the $50 again — no second notice, no second newspaper.
- It does not reserve the name. Sunbiz does not check for duplicates, and a fictitious name registration gives you no exclusive right to it. If that matters, that is a trademark question, not a DBA one.
- Expect the letters. Once the filing is public, companies mail official-looking letters offering to handle the filing or the renewal for $275. They are advertisements, not bills — the state's fee is $50.