[hopeless]

I agree. A professionally designed site would be ideal but it shouldn't be the first thing you concentrate on. First prove the business, then sort out the design.

I guess the rule of thumb would be: pay the designer out of profits - no profits, no designer [1]

[1] and just to pre-empt the counter-arguments: a good product will survive a mediocre design; a great design won't save a bad product.