Was the $4k/wk based on a billed hourly rate?

In general, the economics of working hourly don't tend to work in your favor. On their side, it focuses the client on the rate and the hours and tends to encourage them to micromanage you. On your side, you don't economically benefit from increasing quality and reducing timelines.

It's hard and a lot of people are not good at it, but I recommend trying to do project-oriented work with fixed bids. It's much easier to focus the client on the long-term benefits of higher quality and shorter timelines in a fixed bid situation. And you economically benefit from increasing quality and delivering faster than you bid.

It's a lot easier to compete with offshoring when you set the context this way.