Commercial answer
Your website is a major mouthpiece for your business, and is totally worth investing in. If you have the skill, design your own. If you dont have the skill then you have 2 choices - use a template, or get somone to design something that reflects your business and creativity
A template is a cheap way of getting a reasonable website... but it will look like everyone elses. You can pay for a hosted template - where you basically "fill in the bits and add photo's" or you can purchase a template, and use a HTML editor to "fill in the gaps". Templates repersent your business too, but possibly not allways in a positive light. You need to remember that especially in a creative dicipline - having a website or marketing campagin that looks boxed - like everyone elses - leaves the customer wondeing if you are just like everyone else
Your second option is to employ a designer, and work with them, to produce something that actually does repersent your business
Lots of options, lots of prices - really you firstly need to decide - Is your business worth the investment? Or would the investment make your business worth it? Secondly you need to decide on a budget. Templates range from free to £80 per month, If you design the site yourself, you will only be paying for hosting. A commercially designed site will cost you anything form £800 upwards, depending on specification
Many will argue you can have a commercially designed site for less, but at the end of the day, you pay for what you get - it all comes down to hours worked on the site. The more work the designer does, the more the site does for you and your business. You have to weigh up your investment in a website against traditional methods of advertising. 1000 leaflets, printed ad delivered will cost you approx £400. A reasonable yellow pages ad will cost you £1600 (ours costs that), signwriting on the car or van approx £300. A glossy mailshot, may cost over £1.20 per letter