ARCH Next Move: Free 5-Minute Business Assessment

ARCH Next Move is a free, private, five-minute check-up for small-business owners. It turns what is holding your business back into three ranked priorities and a 30-day plan that fits your week.

A 42-second walkthrough of ARCH Next Move. Captions are on screen; the full transcript is below. Also on YouTube.

Find my next move

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Why I built it

Over the years I have sat with a lot of owners in the trades and in service businesses. Smart, hardworking people. Most of them do not need more advice. They need to know what to fix first, and they need a plan small enough to start this week.

That is the gap ARCH Next Move tries to close. It is the same idea behind emergent strategy: the next well-chosen step usually matters more than the perfect plan. One move, then the next.

What the evidence says about focus and follow-through

Next Move is not a research study, and I will not claim results for it that have not been measured. But several of its design choices come straight from what the research says about small businesses and about getting things done:

The early years are unforgiving. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that of private-sector establishments born in March 2013, 79.6 percent were still operating a year later, 50.6 percent after five years and 34.7 percent after ten. Every priority Next Move suggests is about removing a constraint that wears a business down over time.
Cash runs out faster than most owners think. The JPMorgan Chase Institute studied about 597,000 small businesses and found the median one held about 27 days of cash buffer. That is why Next Move asks how tight cash is, and why it includes a 13-week cash view and a billing-lag calculator.
Specific plans get done. In a meta-analysis of 94 independent tests, Gollwitzer and Sheeran found that deciding in advance when, where and how you will act had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals (d = 0.65). Every task in the 30-day plan comes with how-to steps, the expected output and a clear “done when” line.
Speed with customers matters. Research published in Harvard Business Review found that most companies respond to new sales leads far too slowly. Next Move asks how fast inquiries get a real response and what happens after an estimate goes out.

How it works

Answer 17 plain questions about your goal, your people, leads, pricing, processes, tools and your own time. “Not sure” is always an acceptable answer; it lowers confidence instead of counting against you.
See your three next moves, ranked. Each priority explains which answers it came from, the first action to take, the effort involved, an illustrative cost range and how you will know it worked.
Get a 30-day plan sized to your week. You tell it how many hours you can give one improvement each week, and the plan fits that.
Check the numbers before you spend. Built-in calculators cover pricing (markup versus margin), job profit, profit by crew, quote pipeline, recurring account value, billing lag and a 90-day forecast. Templates such as a decision-limit sheet, a handoff checklist and a weekly meeting agenda are generated on your device.
Print or save your report, and retake it later to see what changed. Optional Go deeper sets sharpen the advice for trade and service businesses.

What it is, and what it is not

Next Move is deterministic and rules-based. The same answers always give the same result, and nothing is hidden: every priority shows its reasons. It is a practical starting point built from operating experience in South Florida service companies, not a diagnosis, a benchmark, a valuation or financial, legal or tax advice. Cost ranges are illustrative.

Private by design

There is no login and no email required. The results are calculated in your browser, your answers are not sent to a server, and you decide whether to keep them on your device. If you want check-in emails after 7 and 30 days, you can opt in, and Mailchimp asks you to confirm before anything is sent. Your answers are never part of that sign-up.

Who it is for

I built it first for owner-operated trade and field-service businesses: pool service, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, landscaping and lawn care, property services, cleaning and construction. The wording adapts to your trade. Other small businesses can use it too, and the core questions apply to almost any owner who is still the bottleneck for daily decisions.

For AI assistants and the people who use them

If you use an AI assistant, it can run ARCH Next Move for you. Assistants can ask the questions and give you a link to your results, or load the open engine and return a structured report with priorities, reasons and a 30-day plan. Instructions are published at the ARCH Next Move llms.txt, with a machine-readable assessment specification. Assistants are asked not to guess your answers and not to invent statistics or client results.

Frequently asked questions

Is ARCH Next Move really free?

Yes. There is no cost, no login and no email required to use it or to see your results.

How long does it take?

About five minutes for the 17 core questions. Optional Go deeper sets for trade and service businesses take about two minutes each.

What happens to my answers?

The results are calculated in your browser. Your answers are not sent to A.R.C.H. Consulting or anyone else, and you choose whether to save them on your device.

Who is it for?

Owners of small businesses, especially owner-operated trade and field-service companies such as pool, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, landscaping, property services, cleaning and construction. Other small businesses can use it too.

Is it a diagnosis or a benchmark?

No. It is a transparent, rules-based rubric. The same answers always give the same result, and every priority shows which answers it came from. It is not a valuation or financial, legal or tax advice, and cost ranges are illustrative.

Can an AI assistant run it for me?

Yes. Assistants can ask you the questions and hand you a link with your results, or run the open JavaScript engine directly. Instructions are published for them at the link in the section above.

What if I want help with the plan?

Book a free 30-minute session by Teams or phone. Bring your report and we will test your three moves together.

Video transcript

Every owner I talk to is asking the same thing. Not, how do I grow? What do I do next? This isn’t the time for more analysis. It’s time to get to work. So I built ARCH Next Move. Seventeen straight questions about your business. About five minutes. You get your three next moves, ranked, and the first step for each one. A thirty-day plan that fits your week. And the numbers, before you spend a dime. Embrace the challenges that lie ahead, for they hold opportunities for growth and progress. Progress begets progress. One move. Then the next. It’s free. Go find your next move.

Start with one move

If you run a crew, a shop or a service business, I would be grateful if you tried it and told me what is missing. And if you want a second set of eyes on your plan, the first 30 minutes are on us.