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“It is not the beauty of a building you should
look at; it’s the construction of the foundation
Over 60 Percent that will stand the test of time.”

- David Allan Coe

of Construction

Firms Are

Profitable

Ventures

According to recently released data from the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs (ASE), 61.3 percent of
American construction firms are profitable commercial enterprises. The differences between construction
and businesses in other industries in this regard are relatively minor. As Exhibit 1 shows, the shares of
construction businesses recording positive profits, breaking even, and sustaining losses are all within 1.2
percentage points of the averages across all U.S. industries.
The ASE is one of the newest surveys
conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The survey began in 2014 and data from
that inaugural year was released for
public use only recently. Previous blog
posts have discussed the ASE data on
sources of start-up capital, in terms of
both start-up capital for construction
businesses and use of home equity
as a source of start-up capital by
U.S. businesses in general. This story
focuses on profitability of construction
businesses, including factors that have a
negative influence on profits.
12 OCTOBER 2017 | GREATER SAN ANTONIO BUILDERS ASSOCIATION