Self-employment method
Other Business Support Services
94,099 people filed as a nonemployer business under this industry code in 2022 — no payroll, no employees, just them. These are gross receipts reported to the IRS, before any expense is taken out.
Median GROSS RECEIPTS for the year — money in, before rent, materials, fuel, insurance or tax. This is not take-home pay.
Share who grossed under $10,000 for the whole year — before expenses.
The middle half, in gross receipts. A quarter of filers took less than the lower figure.
Source: US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
How often it does not work out
Of the 94,099 people who filed under this code in 2022, 38.46% grossed under $10,000 for the entire year — before a single expense was deducted.
That is a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes GROSS RECEIPTS, not net income. Everyone inside that share earned less than the figure suggests once rent, materials, mileage, insurance and self-employment tax came out — and filers who grossed well above the threshold may still have netted nothing. The true share of people who earn nothing meaningful from this is higher than the number above, never lower.
Denominator: establishments_total = 94,099 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full distribution Census publishes. The median above is interpolated inside the band that holds the 50th percentile.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 21,328 | 22.7% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 14,863 | 15.8% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 21,887 | 23.3% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 14,024 | 14.9% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 10,851 | 11.5% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 7,520 | 8.0% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 2,254 | 2.4% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 977 | 1.0% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 395 | 0.4% |
Who this suits
At the midpoint this work grossed $17,442 for the year — $1,453 a month in revenue. That is a real second income and a long way short of a first one, and Census cannot tell you which of those the typical filer intended.
94,099 people filed under this code. A field that large has a settled price, a settled set of expectations, and no shortage of people willing to meet both.
11.8% of filers grossed $100,000 or more. That is a substantial upper tier by the standards of this dataset — the difference between a full operation and an occasional one is visible in the distribution rather than only in the anecdotes.
Administrative and support services suit people who can win recurring contracts rather than one-off jobs, because the whole economics turn on route density and repeat work.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 94,099 people did. Free entry is why the lower bands are as full as they are: the distribution below counts everyone who tried, not everyone who was ready.
Who should not do this
Bottom quarter under $5,739, top quarter over $47,277: 8.2x, or $3,461 a month. At this stretch the label has stopped describing one occupation, and every summary statistic about it — including the midpoint — should be treated with suspicion.
The bottom quarter of Other Business Support Services earns under $5,739 — $44,281 below the $50,020 a typical American job pays. Entering at the bottom and waiting is a live risk here, not a theoretical one, and some people never leave that quarter.
Do not start this on one-off jobs. Without recurring contracts the acquisition cost eats the margin every time.
38.5% of the 94,099 people who filed in 2022 grossed under $10,000 for the year — 36,190 people. Approaching half of everyone who tried Other Business Support Services took in less revenue than a part-time wage, before costs.
Read that as a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes gross receipts, not net income, so everyone inside that share earned less than $10,000 suggests once costs came out — and filers who grossed well above $10,000 may still have netted nothing.
What the spread tells you
At 8.2x, the gap between $5,739 and $47,277 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $17,442 is real and it is not a forecast — the people quoting the upper end at you are describing a minority.
The middle half of this field earns between $5,739 and $47,277. That is $41,538 of range, with $17,442 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
Between $5,739 and $47,277 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $17,442. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $29,835; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $41,538.
The upper half of the middle range — $17,442 to $47,277, or $29,835 — is far longer than the lower half at $11,703. In a shape like this an average would flatter Other Business Support Services considerably, and would describe nobody.
Spread across a 2,080-hour year those receipts come to $8.38 an hour at the midpoint, $2.75 at the 25th percentile and $22.72 at the 75th. That is turnover per hour, not pay per hour, and it is not comparable with the $24.04 an hour a typical American job pays.
Counted straight off the return: 21,328 filers grossed under $5,000, 14,863 took $5,000 to $9,999, 21,887 took $10,000 to $24,999, 11,146 cleared $100,000 and 3,626 cleared $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Read every figure here as GROSS RECEIPTS rather than income. $17,442 is turnover — the money that passed through Other Business Support Services before expenses. What is left after costs is a different and much smaller number that this dataset does not publish.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Other Business Support Services, the hourly figure is $17,442 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else