How long is a piece of string? Different startups have different budgets. Some designers are expensive to some budgets but still cheap for other budgets. If

How long is a piece of string? Different startups have different budgets. Some designers are expensive to some budgets but still cheap for other budgets. If you are working out of your home or a small office you are still likely spending much less on your business front (website) than a brick and mortor business which has to buy a building and spend money on signage. Do what you can. If you have no budget for design, then do the design yourself or use a free template. If you have no time and a tiny budget, get someone cheap off a site like Elance or Odesk. Getting the business off the ground is more important than starting out with a world class design by a high end design studio. Go take a look at what the first versions of some of your favorite sites looked like when they first got started. ;)