The $6.5K Website That Takes 40 Hours: Why Your Margins Are Broken

November 28, 2025

Most creatives think they have a pricing problem.

They don’t.

They have a margin problem — and nowhere is that more obvious than the classic “$6,500 website project.”

At first glance, $6.5K feels solid. Respectable. A real business service.

But if it takes you 40 hours (and let’s be honest, it always takes more), then your real numbers tell a different story:

$6,500 / 40 hours
= $162/hour before expenses
= $110/hour after contractor costs
= $60/hour after revisions + meetings
= $25/hour after admin, taxes, overhead, software, and delays

Suddenly…
Your flagship website offer pays you less than your teenager makes at Chick-fil-A.

And that’s exactly why your business keeps feeling “busy” but never profitable.

Let’s break down how this trap happens — and how to fix it.

1. The Real Enemy: Hidden Hours You Never Track

The biggest lie in the creative world?

“I can build that in about 30–40 hours.”

No, you can’t.

Here’s the real time breakdown nobody calculates:

🕒 Pre-Sale Time

Discovery calls
Proposal writing
Follow-ups
Scope revisions
4–8 hours, gone.

🕒 Production Time

Wireframing
Copy edits
Creative direction
Design rounds
Dev + QA
Client revisions (x3)
25–40 hours, gone.

🕒 Post-Launch Time

Bug fixes
Tweaks
“One last thing”
Training calls
Migration issues
5–10 hours, gone.

Total actual time:
40–60+ hours

Even at $6.5K, your effective hourly rate craters.

2. The Sunk-Cost Death Spiral

Clients say:

“Since we’re already this far… can we also add ____?”

And you say yes — because:

You want them happy.
You want referrals.
You don’t want conflict.
You feel bad charging more.

But every “quick update” is another hour shaved off your profit.

By the time you launch, the relationship isn’t just unprofitable — you’ve paid to serve them.

3. Your Pricing Isn’t the Problem — Your Model Is

A $6.5K website can be profitable, but only inside the right system:

👎 Broken model (what most creatives run):

One-off projects
No scope boundaries
No operating cadence
No revision limits
No speed systems
No client training
No pre-built assets
Emotional labor + “people pleasing”

Result:
Every project feels custom… and your margins vanish.

👍 Profitable model (what high-margin agencies use):

Tight scope
Pre-defined phases
Clear revision limits
Sprint-based production
Pre-built components/templates
Fast approvals
Decision frameworks
Productized operations
Recurring revenue upsells

Result:
Predictable timelines. Predictable cost. Predictable margin.

Profit isn’t an accident — it’s engineered.

4. The Real Math: You Need $200–$350 Effective Hourly

If you want:

Savings
Growth
A team
Margin
Cashflow
Freedom

…you can’t be earning $25–$60/hr doing flagship creative work.

A healthy creative business needs at least:

$200–$350/hr effective earnings.

Not billed hourly —
effective hourly.

That means after:

delays
messages
revisions
onboarding
admin
overhead
sales time
failed leads
taxes

Otherwise you’re running a hobby, not a company.

5. What Fixes Everything: A Productized, Tiered System

Here’s the system the most profitable creative founders use — the same one you use at Start Right:

🟦 Step 1 — Standardize Your Deliverables

Remove custom from 90% of your process.

🟩 Step 2 — Build Fast-Execution Templates

You shouldn’t build a hero section from scratch in 2025.

🟧 Step 3 — Install Revision Limits

2 rounds. Not 8.
Clear boundaries = clear margins.

🟥 Step 4 — Train Clients in How to Make Decisions

Bad clients aren’t bad… they’re untrained.

🟪 Step 5 — Wrap Everything in a Weekly Operating System

Your “Core 8” system is exactly this.

🟫 Step 6 — Introduce Recurring Revenue

$200/month hosting
$297/month updates
$497/month retainer blocks
This is where you stop reinventing the wheel… and start building wealth.

6. The Bigger Problem: You’re Still Selling “Websites” Instead of Outcomes

Clients don’t buy:

pages
templates
design
branding
revisions

They buy:

clarity
conversions
reputation
speed
momentum
consistency
a business that finally feels organized

When you sell outcome, you unlock premium pricing.

When you sell deliverables, you trap yourself in low margins forever.

7. The Truth: $6.5K Isn’t High-End Anymore

In 2025, $6.5K barely covers:

tools
taxes
admin labor
prep time
revisions
support
overhead
payment delays
sales effort

It’s not premium.
It’s not luxury.

It’s middle-tier pricing with bottom-tier margins unless your systems are air-tight.

8. So… Do You Raise Prices or Fix Your Systems?

Answer: Both.

But you must fix your systems first.
Otherwise raising prices just creates bigger angry clients.

Your next moves:

Productize your offer
Limit revisions
Build templates
Create sprint timelines
Add recurring revenue
Track effective hourly rate, not billed rate
Sell outcomes, not design

Do this and a $6.5K website becomes:

a 10–15 hour build
with 60–70% margin
plus recurring revenue on the back end
plus speed, clarity, and predictable cashflow

That’s a business.
That’s freedom.

Not…
a 40-hour creative grind priced like part-time retail.

Final Word

If your margins are broken, you’re not bad at business —
you’re just stuck in the wrong model.

The fix isn’t working harder.
It’s working from a better system.

And no matter how “busy” you are right now, the only metric that matters is this:

“How much do I earn for every hour I invest?”

If that number isn’t $200–$350…
your business isn’t broken —
your margins are.