Where telecom contractors lose money
6 things cost telecom contractors money without ever becoming a line item, and each one traces to a step you can install. Telecom contractors average 22% gross margin, 15% overhead and 7% net profit at $1M to $5M of revenue. The CFOS target at that size is 24.5% gross margin, 14% overhead and 10.5% net, and the 3.5 points left on the table is where those mechanisms live. Figures for all 7 revenue bands are in the table below.
Telecom ranks 3rd of 6 in electrical and technology on net profit, and it has leaner overhead than the 48-trade average. Here is every figure, across all 7 revenue bands.
Run On CFOS publishes the full benchmark reference: 48 trades across all 7 revenue bands, $1M to $500M and above. The 4 bands above $25M are modeled and labeled that way in every table, and no CFOS target is published for them. Run On CFOS computes net profit as gross margin minus overhead, before taxes.
Telecom by revenue band
| Metric | $1M to $5M | $5M to $10M | $10M to $25M | $25M to $50MModeled | $50M to $100MModeled | $100M to $500MModeled | $500M+Modeled | CFOS target at $1M to $5M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% |
| Gross margin | 22% | 23% | 24% | 25% | 26% | 28% | 29% | 24.5% |
| Net profit | 7% | 9% | 11% | 13% | 15% | 18% | 20% | 10.5% |
| Metric | $1M to $5M | $5M to $10M | $10M to $25M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 14% | 13% | 12% |
| Gross margin | 24.5% | 25.5% | 26.5% |
| Net profit | 10.5% | 12.5% | 14.5% |
Modeled extension of the survey curve, not reconciled against the licensed CFMA Benchmarker. That applies to the 4 bands above $10M to $25M, and no CFOS target is published for them.
Gross margin and overhead come from figures CFMA, Jones Maresca and other sources publish by trade and size. Net profit is computed, not surveyed: net profit = gross margin minus overhead. Nothing comes out for taxes, interest or other income and expense, so it is a before tax figure, on the same basis as CFMA's net income before taxes.
CFMA's 2025 medians are 7.1 percent before interest and taxes and 6.7 percent net income before taxes. Gross margin minus overhead leaves out interest and other income and expense, so a figure here can come in a little above or below a reported net income on the same business.
Above the $10M to $25M band the gross margin and overhead rows are a modeled extension of the same curves. They have not been reconciled against the licensed CFMA Benchmarker, so read those bands as a model and not as a survey result.
Run On CFOS. Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference: Telecom. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Operations, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/telecom. CC BY 4.0.
Figures on this page were last revised 2026-08-21. Published under CC BY 4.0, which permits reuse of any figure here, including commercially, as long as the credit above travels with it. The same figures in machine-readable form: /benchmarks.json.
Trade level gross margin and overhead come from figures CFMA, Jones Maresca and other sources publish, and Run On CFOS computes net profit from them: net profit = gross margin minus overhead, before taxes. The CFOS targets beside them are from the book CONTROL: C.F.O.S. Construction Financial Operating System, published with the full reference at runoncfos.com.
- 2024 Construction Financial Benchmarker, Executive Summary, Construction Financial Management Association, 2024.
- 2025 Construction Financial Benchmarker, Executive Summary, Construction Financial Management Association, 2025.
- 2025 Performance Benchmarks, Construction Companies, Jones Maresca and Company, 2025.
- Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference, Sulphur Prairie Operations, LLC, 2026.
Sourcing and method: the methodology page.
Which bands are measured. The 4 bands above $10M to $25M extend the survey curve further out and have not been reconciled against the licensed CFMA Benchmarker. How every figure was built is explained on the methodology page.
Use these numbers on your own jobs
CFOS for QuickBooks grades your own books against the telecom figures above, every month. At $1M to $5M, the published average net profit is 7% before taxes and the CFOS target is 10.5%.
Under $10M. You see which jobs made money while they are still open, so you can fix a telecom job before it closes. From $10M to $50M. The controller gets a WIP that ties to QuickBooks Online, with each project manager's cost to complete approved every month.
6 problems specific to telecom
You cut a check to the power company in March for work your crews don't perform, and the first foot of strand goes up in August. Twelve thousand feet went in the ground in June and the invoice didn't move until September. Pre-term trunks take eight to twelve weeks and get cut to a number you took off the ceiling grid. You pulled cable in month three and saw the retainage on it in month twenty-four.
Each one below points at the item, the unit, the clock, or the party that makes it a telecom problem, and it says which step fixes it.
| Mechanism | Why it's specific to this trade | Step |
|---|---|---|
| You Pay the Pole Owner Months Before You Hang Strand | No other trade pays a third party in advance to move somebody else's plant before work can start. The pole owner controls the clock: 45 days to survey on a routine order, 60 to 90 on mid-size and large ones, then 30 days of make-ready in communications space or 90 days above it, and you've no crew on site to influence any of it. Your money is tied up inside another company's operation, buying work you can't schedule, expedite, or invoice against. | Job cost structure |
| The Inspector's Signature Starts Your Pay Clock | Most trades bill percentage complete that a GC can eyeball on a walkthrough. Outside plant quantity gets accepted against a GIS deliverable: point files, stationing, sheet numbers, and splice detail, reviewed by an inspector who works for the carrier and follows a standards manual. A finished bore never gets taken on trust. | Project management |
| A Pre-Term Trunk Cut Wrong Is Scrap You Own | Other trades release long-lead gear off a plan set at buyout and let the factory clock start counting months before installation. Somebody from your crew has to walk the building with a measuring wheel first, so your longest lead item is also your latest release, every time. A mismeasured assembly also has no salvage path, because it fits one run in one building and nothing else. | Project management |
| Month-Three Retainage Comes Back in Month Twenty-Four | A trade that mobilizes once has retention aging from one date and can collect it as one number. Yours ages from five separate dates, and the oldest dollar is the one that waits the longest and gets forgotten first. Every return trip is also a crew day and a truck day that a single lump sum bid usually assumed you'd spend once. | Monthly cadence |
| Links Fail in November, Cable Was Damaged in April | Most trades install work that stays visible until somebody accepts it. Your product disappears above a finished ceiling within weeks and doesn't get proven for a year, which makes telecom the only trade on the job that finds damage after every possible defendant has left the site. The months between install and proof are where the money goes. | Standards and accountability |
| Standby Days Cost What Bore Days Cost | Trades that bid by the square foot buy labor by the hour and can send people home. You buy a rig, a vac truck, and a four-man crew as one indivisible daily unit that produces zero feet on a standby day at full cost. That makes your equipment cost basis the number that decides whether the job worked, and the unit price only tells you what you were allowed to charge. | Equipment cost basis |
Telecom against the other 47 trades
| Metric | Telecom | Electrical and technology average | All 48 average | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 15% | 15.5% | 15.1% | 17th of 48 |
| Gross margin | 22% | 22.8% | 22.1% | 20th of 48 |
| Net profit | 7% | 7.3% | 7% | 21st of 48 |
Telecom sheds 6 points of overhead between $1M to $5M and $500M+, against 6 for electrical and technology as a group. Inside that group, Electrical is the most profitable at 9%, and Fiber, Solar and Telecom all have 15% overhead, the leanest. The leanest one is this trade.
Other electrical and technology trades
What owners ask
What overhead should a telecom contractor have?
Telecom shares its overhead figure with 14 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 15% at $1M to $5M and 9% at $500M+, as a percentage of revenue. That is 0.5 points below the electrical and technology average of 15.5%. The CFOS target at $1M to $5M is 14%. The CFOS target is one point leaner than your trade's industry average at your revenue.
What gross margin should a telecom contractor have?
Telecom shares its gross margin figure with 12 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 22% at $1M to $5M and 29% at $500M+, as a percentage of revenue. That is 0.8 points below the electrical and technology average of 22.8%. The CFOS target at $1M to $5M is 24.5%. The CFOS target recalculates at your revenue: whatever gross margin produces the net profit target once overhead is paid, never below your trade's own industry average.
What net profit should a telecom contractor have?
Telecom shares its net profit figure with 16 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It averages 7% at $1M to $5M and 20% at $500M+, before taxes, gross margin minus overhead, as a percentage of revenue. That is 0.3 points below the electrical and technology average of 7.3%. The CFOS target at $1M to $5M is 10.5%. The CFOS target recalculates at your revenue: 10 percent before taxes, or 3.5 points better than your trade's industry average, whichever is higher.
What profit margin should a small telecom business have?
Owners usually mean net profit when they say profit margin, and for telecom at $1M to $5M that's 7%. Gross margin is a different number, 22%, and it's what's left after job costs but before overhead. Overhead is the 15% between the two. A small telecom business holding 7% net is at the published figure for its size, and the CFOS target at that revenue is 10.5%.
Does telecom get more profitable as it grows?
Overhead is the number that moves. Telecom sheds 6 points between $1M to $5M and $500M+, which is in line with the 6 points electrical and technology sheds as a group. Net profit starts 0 points under the 48-trade average, so the room is in the overhead line before it's anywhere else.
Where does telecom rank against the other trades?
Telecom ties 2 trades in electrical and technology on net profit, all at 7%. Electrical is the most profitable at 9%. Its overhead is the leanest too, level with Fiber and Solar. Gross margin ranks 20th of 48 and overhead ranks 17th.
That's the industry average and the CFOS target for telecom at every size. Want your own books set beside them? The Financial Health Snapshot builds a CEO Report from your last twelve months, sets every figure against your trade, and walks you through it on a 60 minute call. SPM The Construction CFO (Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC) is a separate firm, and the same author leads it.
Everything on this page is something you can install yourself, and CONTROL is the order to do it in. If you would rather buy the finished result, SPM The Construction CFO does this work for telecom contractors as a service. It is a separate firm, Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC, led by the same author.
Wrote CONTROL, the 8 step system behind these figures. More about the author.