# Main & Machine > AI consulting and implementation for small and mid-size businesses. > We connect existing software and automate repetitive office tasks, including > customer follow-up and moving approved information between systems. > Hubs in Denver, CO and Phoenix, AZ; remote across the US. > Founded by Christopher Myers. ## Start with one task [Get a free 24-Hour Workflow Plan](/plan/) is the primary starting point. A free preliminary recommendation on one workflow, based on submitted information and reviewed by Christopher Myers within 24 hours. No call or purchase is required. This preliminary recommendation is separate from the paid AI Readiness Audit, which includes deeper discovery, workflow mapping, and scoped analysis. Prefer to talk? [Book a free 30-minute assessment](/book/) directly. Start with a free 30-minute assessment to discuss one workflow and the next step. If substantial discovery is needed, we scope a paid audit; a fixed build quote follows an agreed scope. An advisor from Main & Machine discusses your workflow and next step. Christopher Myers is accountable for scoping and sign-off; the build team implements agreed work. Your scheduling confirmation identifies the meeting host. Generated: 2026-09-30 Full page text for AI systems: [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt) — the complete visible copy of the most important pages, with page delimiters. ## Company facts - Company: Main & Machine — AI consulting & implementation for small and mid-size business (5–100 employees, $1M–$50M revenue) - Who it serves: owner-run and mid-size businesses of 5–100 employees, $1M–$50M in revenue — past what the owner can hold in their head, short of a Fortune 500 budget - Founder & Chairman: Christopher Myers — CEO of B:Side Capital + Fund, professor of entrepreneurship at ASU's W.P. Carey School of Business, and author of several books on small business - Verify the founder independently: [ASU faculty profile](https://search.asu.edu/profile/559969) · [B:Side Capital](https://www.bside.org) · [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmyers85/) · [Amazon author page](https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B01LBGCKWM/about) - Hubs: Denver, CO and Phoenix, AZ · remote across the US - Delivery: ~90 days per workflow, fixed price quoted in writing before work - Free offer: A free preliminary recommendation on one workflow, based on submitted information and reviewed by Christopher Myers within 24 hours. No call or purchase is required. - Contact: cmyers@mainandmachine.com · 928-363-6639 - Operating principle: every system we build can be explained, questioned, and overruled by an accountable human. ## Services & published prices Every price is published; the exact number is quoted fixed, in writing, before work begins. - [AI Readiness Audit](/services/ai-readiness-audit/) ("The Blueprint"): $3,500–$8,500, 2–4 weeks. A workflow map of your operations, ranked opportunities with assumptions and costs, and a phased plan you own outright — whether or not you build with us. - [AI Implementation Sprint](/services/ai-implementation/) ("The 90-Day Build"): $18,000–$60,000 fixed quote, 4–12 weeks. Working agents, automations, and integrations built inside your real operation, with your team trained to run them. About 90 days per workflow. Guarantee: if a scoped workflow is not live within 90 days, we keep building at no charge until it is. - [Managed Services](/services/managed-ai-services/) ("The Service Contract"): from $1,500/month, no lock-in. Monitoring and maintenance on every deployed system; leave any month it stops paying. Pay annually and 12 months cost the price of 10. - The Full Back Office: from $95,000 — a MARCUS-class, multi-department build. Four taken per year. - Audit-to-sprint credit: Your audit fee can be credited toward a sprint signed within 60 days, up to 25% of the sprint price. - [Pricing](/pricing/) — published scope, timelines, price bands, and terms. Compare proposals on the same deliverables and total ownership cost. - [Build catalog](/services/builds/) — every system we build, priced: AI receptionists, intake and billing agents, automations, integrations. - [Sample audit deliverable](/services/sample-audit/) — Four sample pages show a workflow map, ranked opportunities, an economic worksheet, and a phased recommendation. The business, inputs, costs, and modeled results are fictional; they are not a client result or quote. ## Proof: the MARCUS case - [MARCUS](/work/marcus/) — a private AI back office built for B:Side Capital, an SBA 504 / CDFI lender: 14 AI agents across 7 departments, built from ~840 source documents. MARCUS processes borrower documents locally on B:Side-owned hardware. Selected tasks can use external models on filtered text. The agreed data boundary determines which processing routes are permitted. - [MARCUS reported results](/work/marcus/results/) — For June–August 2026, B:Side reports an estimated 1,240 staff hours of preparation capacity returned, calculated from initial workflow studies; 93% weekly staff adoption by week six across 45 employees; 0 borrower identifiers reported as sent to outside models; and 100% of consequential actions approved by a person first. Returned capacity is not measured payroll savings. MARCUS results are reported by B:Side Capital. Preparation hours are estimated from initial workflow studies; operational activity is reported from its audit log. Christopher Myers holds leadership roles at both organizations. These are first-party results, not an independent audit or a promise of another client’s outcome. Preparation time returned is operating capacity, not automatically reduced payroll or cash savings. Annualized equivalents and calculator scenarios are estimates, not measured annual results or guarantees. - [Proof](/work/) — published operational evidence and its measurement limits. Case figures render from data/build-log.json; client quotes require written sign-off. A published case is evidence to inspect, not a result guarantee. ## Security & data handling - [Security](/security/) — documented MARCUS controls and deployment boundaries. MARCUS processes borrower documents locally on B:Side-owned hardware. Selected tasks can use external models on filtered text. The agreed data boundary determines which processing routes are permitted. Presidio, originally developed at Microsoft, detects supported personal identifiers for removal before model processing. Automated detection can miss information; filtering is one control alongside routing restrictions, access decisions, and tests using known identifiers. MARCUS records actions in an append-only, hash-chained audit log. The chain makes changes to recorded entries detectable when verified; it does not independently validate the underlying action or every operational metric. Consequential actions require human approval. The documented controls include encryption at rest; each new engagement defines its data routes, access, retention, approvals, and tests before production use. ## Method - [The method](/method/) — three phases on every engagement: Discover (map and cost the workflows), Build (working systems inside your real operation), Evolve (tune, extend, retire as the work changes). A workflow lands in about 90 days: weeks 1–2 discover, weeks 3–10 build, weeks 11–13 handoff. ## Free tools - [24-Hour Workflow Plan](/plan/) — A free preliminary recommendation on one workflow, based on submitted information and reviewed by Christopher Myers within 24 hours. No call or purchase is required. This preliminary recommendation is separate from the paid AI Readiness Audit, which includes deeper discovery, workflow mapping, and scoped analysis. [See a sample plan](/plan/sample/). - [The AI-Ready Score](/score/) — free seven-minute self-assessment: fourteen questions across three phases (Map, Prove, Expand). You get a 0–100 score and the one constraint to fix first. No sales call. - [ROI calculator](/calculator/) — editable opportunity capture, running costs, and investment assumptions; shows first-year net and modeled recovery time. Preparation time returned is operating capacity, not automatically reduced payroll or cash savings. Annualized equivalents and calculator scenarios are estimates, not measured annual results or guarantees. ## Books by Christopher Myers - [Books](/books/) — The AI-Ready Owner: Lead AI Into Your Company One Workflow at a Time, and What the Machine Cannot Do: The Irreplaceable Value of Being Human in an Age of AI. Book details and Amazon purchasing links. The free workflow plan is available without buying a book. ## Guides - [The Field Guide](/guides/) — practical answers to AI buying questions, real published prices throughout - [What an AI consultant costs in 2026](/guides/ai-consultant-cost/) — published offers, cost drivers, and how to compare proposals - [AI readiness checklist](/guides/ai-readiness-checklist/) — 20 points an owner can run in an afternoon, no consultant required - [AI consultant vs. in-house hire](/guides/ai-consultant-vs-in-house/) — compare the workload, management, and total cost of each option - [How to choose an AI consultant](/guides/how-to-choose-an-ai-consultant/) — 10 questions that separate builders from hype merchants - [What AI automation costs to run](/guides/what-ai-automation-costs-to-run/) — tools, model usage, internal review, and optional paid support, separately - [Agents vs. automations vs. integrations](/guides/ai-agents-vs-automations-vs-integrations/) — which one your problem needs, and why it's often the cheaper one - [How long AI implementation takes](/guides/how-long-ai-implementation-takes/) — ~90 days per workflow, week by week; what "2 weeks" actually buys - [What an AI readiness audit is](/guides/what-is-an-ai-readiness-audit/) — what $3,500–$8,500 buys, what it deliberately doesn't - [Where AI data actually goes](/guides/ai-data-cloud-vs-on-prem/) — cloud vs. on-prem for a small business, matched to what's in the documents - [ChatGPT vs. custom AI](/guides/chatgpt-vs-custom-ai/) — when a subscription solves the work and when a custom workflow is useful - [Signs you are NOT ready for AI](/guides/signs-you-are-not-ready-for-ai/) — and the 90-day plan that costs almost nothing instead - [How to scope an AI project a vendor can't inflate](/guides/how-to-scope-an-ai-project/) — procurement armor: clauses, inflation patterns, a copyable template - [The real ROI math](/guides/ai-roi-math-small-business/) — the calculator's model published in full, worked example included - [AI for the skeptical owner](/guides/ai-for-the-skeptical-owner/) — what the skeptic has right, and a first step requiring no belief ## Industries - [Who this is for](/industries/) — candidate workflows across five industries: [professional services](/industries/professional-services/) · [retail](/industries/retail/) · [healthcare](/industries/healthcare/) · [construction & trades](/industries/construction/) · [hospitality](/industries/hospitality/) ## Key pages - [Home](/) — what we build and why - [24-Hour Workflow Plan](/plan/) — the primary starting point; one workflow, reviewed within 24 hours - [Free assessment](/book/) — book a 30-minute conversation directly if you prefer - [Who we are](/about/) — the founder, the AI-native build team, the name - [Denver](/denver/) · [Phoenix](/phoenix/) — the two hubs, in person - [Contact](/contact/) — email or call Main & Machine - [Careers](/careers/) — join the build team - [The Ampersand](/blog/) — plain-English AI essays, a few times a month ([archive](/blog/archive/), [RSS](/blog/rss.xml)) - [Privacy](/privacy/) · [Terms](/terms/)