No Margin, No Mission: Why Contractors Need Both

In late 2023, author Casey Rosengren wrote an article called “No Margin, No Mission: The Ethical Imperative to Make a Profit,” in which he revisited a period of life in his late twenties. He had just sold his first startup and made a bit of money, but he was utterly exhausted with no energy left for another venture. Rosengren had a friend who was doing a nine-month retreat at a Buddhist monastery, which sounded like it could be a good reset. As he was looking into this retreat, one of the older monks mentioned his own financial difficulties. This came as quite a shock to Rosengren, who was trying to get away from money. He realized that—even in a Buddhist monastery—there is no true escape from the money problem.  

I've known many contractors over the years that do complex, risky and sometimes even dangerous work for very little margin—or none at all. They say things like, "We're not in this for the money. We're in it for our customers,” or, “We're in it for the community. We just love to build, and the money will come eventually.” But those sentiments are deceptive; money and margin must be parts of any good contractor’s business plan. 

Rosengren wrote: “For many founders, sales and cash flow aren't the fun parts of the business. As a result, they focus on product.” In the case of contractors, they focus on their construction skills and offerings “while underpricing their services and ignoring unit economics,” in Rosengren’s words.  

If you’re a mission-driven construction company, he says, the problem is likely even bigger in your organization. But in the end, there can be no mission if there’s no margin. That phrase, "No margin, no mission," originated with Sister Irene Kraus, a Catholic nun who ran a network of more than 80 nonprofit hospitals in New York. She said that any threat to their financial health was a threat to their mission.  

Similarly, Trappist monks specialize in running small businesses to support the work of their order. They brew beer, make cheese and run other small, entrepreneurial pursuits. One monastery in France sells its cheese not at a bargain rate, but at a premium price. But these are people committed to vows of poverty; how can they justify selling their cheese for a premium price? Their rationale is that they want to pay their trade partners and employees fairly while supporting the work of the order. If they charged bargain prices, this would be much less realistic.  

These ideals carry over to mission-driven construction companies as well. There is an ethical imperative for you to create margin and profits in delivering your services. You must create and deliver a quality product, but in doing so, you must not sacrifice profitable rates. Doing so will harm your employees, trade partners and your business.