There is no way around it, having a presence on the web is vital if you want to compete in today’s market. You may think that hiring a cheaper designer (or non-designer) may sound like a good idea because we’re in a recession, but think again…
Just because someone can do “cool stuff” in Photoshop, doesn’t mean they can design aesthetically pleasing and effective websites and/or marketing materials.
“It’s cheaper to do something right once, than wrong over and over again.”
If you hire some Photoshop Monkey to slap together your website (or other marketing materials for that matter), you will likely end up spending more money, because you will end up hiring someone else to redo it a few months later.
Spend your money on a real designer and get an effective, professionally designed website the first time!