# Cheap £99 website builds are killing your website design business Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/websites-made-simple-how-to-have-a-successful-website-design-business-6718598/cheap-99-website-builds-are-killing-your-website-design-business Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/websites-made-simple-how-to-have-a-successful-website-design-business-6718598/cheap-99-website-builds-are-killing-your-website-design-business.md Podcast: [Websites Made Simple: How to have a successful website design business](https://stenobird.com/podcast/websites-made-simple-how-to-have-a-successful-website-design-business-6718598) Published: 2026-05-04T05:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/podcast/ Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/cf308b26-fefa-4516-a345-9b02bf58010f.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/websites-made-simple-how-to-have-a-successful-website-design-business-6718598/episodes/cheap-99-website-builds-are-killing-your-website-design-business Duration seconds: 1015 ## Resource If you’ve been tempted to move to a £99 a month website model — or you’ve been quietly cutting your prices just to get work through the door — this episode is a direct intervention. Psst! Check out my new offer: https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/sparks-group-mentoring/ It’s a supportive group mentoring session for website designers and developers to bring their questions, roadblocks, ideas, and “is it just me?” moments. Welcome to another episode of Websites Made Simple with me, Holly Christie. In this episode, I’m talking about why the £99 website model isn’t the sustainable business move it might look like on paper — and what to do instead when the market feels slow. We get into: How the maths of volume pricing simply don’t add up The burnout that comes with trying the model Why ongoing payment plans are bad news The hidden costs that slowly erode client trust What to do instead If you’re a web designer wondering whether dropping your prices is the answer, this episode will give you the confidence to hold firm. Come and find out more at https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk or email me at hello@websitesmadesimple.co.uk Skip to the good bits: 00:00 Why the £99 website model doesn’t work 00:35 Meet Holly: Websites Made Simple 00:46 Who this episode applies to 01:45 The volume problem: you’d need 30 clients for £3,000 04:14 Burnout is baked into this model 04:38 Scope creep and the ongoing payment trap 06:32 Hidden costs and eroding client trust 08:34 Email hosting, DNS, and the chaos that follows 11:19 Content collection in a low-cost model 12:26 Hold your nerve: panic pricing makes it worse Mentioned in this episode: Remember to sign up for our blogging masterclass! Go to https://websitesmadesimple.co.uk/masterclass Blogging masterclass ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/websites-made-simple-how-to-have-a-successful-website-design-business-6718598/episodes/cheap-99-website-builds-are-killing-your-website-design-business/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/websites-made-simple-how-to-have-a-successful-website-design-business-6718598/cheap-99-website-builds-are-killing-your-website-design-business.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.