Wed Design Advice?

It depends on you. You can try to make it by yourself or you can hire a professional web designer. If you are not very strong at web designing then you’d better turn to a web design agency and enjoy your website. Of course you’ll spend some money but you save your time and as we know time is money.

If you haven't had a lot of experience before designing or building websites you will struggle with what you want to do. I would suggest paying someone to make the site for you. It takes many years to understand how to build a website properly let alone build a shopping cart etc.

Always hire a designer. If the budget is tight, you can look at local Design Schools to find a capable student to hire. Good luck.

As others have mentioned, the sensible option would be to hire a web designer, you can find designers to fit most budgets... (obviously you tend to get what you pay for so usually the less you spend the less you should expect).
If you have some skills and are a quick learner, it may be that you could find a Wordpress Theme that suits your needs that you could customise a little. You don't really need to invest in any software. Good Luck.

If you’re on a tight budget and time frame, always look for a designer. As you could spend a large amount of time just researching the first issue you may encounter if you not that familiar with scripting.

If your looking at starting up your own business you want to make things as stress free as possible!

lol, at all the guys with links in their responses.

Anyway. Design and development is a professional skill. It will cost you more if you are not knowledgeable to gain the knowledge than to pay a web designer who has already spent years refining their skill.

Running a business is all about return on investment. If you intend to succeed you will do well to make your decisions based on that. Don't be a statistic!