OnDeck report shows 67% of US construction business owners have no college degree

Skip the diploma and grab a hard hat, because the classroom is losing out to the job site. A new report from OnDeck analyzed US census data to find which industries across the United States have the most business owners who never finished college. Two-thirds of all construction business owners, exactly 67 percent, did not graduate from college, according to the research. That puts construction at the very top of the list, proving you do not need a ivy league pedigree to build a profitable enterprise. According to data from ZipRecruiter, construction business owners see annual salaries as high as $339,500, while their average annual pay clocks in at $127,973. Right behind them, business owners in the personal, home, and automotive services industry claimed the second spot at 64 percent. The transportation and warehousing sector took third place with 62 percent of owners running their fleets without a college diploma. Rising tuition costs are pushing a new wave of young entrepreneurs to follow in the footsteps of college dropouts like Steve Jobs, who left Reed College after one semester before co-founding Apple. You might not build the next trillion-dollar tech giant, but the numbers show the trades are paying the bills just fine. For anyone sitting on a toolbox wondering if they missed out on a campus education, the bank account is telling a different story. Sometimes the best business plan starts with a truck and a toolbox instead of a lecture hall.