[Sapporo Guy]

Sorry ,

What I meant by "copying" was that a lot of folks go to a template site and then just change their name on it. I should have been clearer.

I mentioned modx because:
1.) it's a pretty dam good system and is very versatile (comparable to ruby-on-rails and zope) joomla and other nuke derivatives are facing some very stiff competition from the new web 2.0 folks.
2.) the page presentation is just amazing ... you can go with templates or pure tradtional html
3.) the folks there are very clued into what works for those $100k sites
4.) their write ups and what not are highly thought out
5.) license is great
6.) personal opinion -- I like the way they do things

Wil,
Before you go further ... I really recommend to site down with pen and paper and write out things about your business, various things that you like -- ie, colors, food, cars, etc ...
Basically brain storm in a rather disorganized fashion.

Then move on to writting up what you want on each page.

You are right about the 4 second approach. Actually I'd almost narrow it down to 2. People have very limited attention spans.

Do you have a MVV statement?

Take a look at the company that did that dashboard program ... or was it basecamp ... lolo, it's been a while since I rummage through some sweet sites.
Ones I used to like were, ikea, crate and barrel, mysql, american airlines ... to name a few.

I agree with Don and Rob a lot too, but think that you can do some of the ground work first and then contact somebody.

I personally stay away from flash heavy sites ... the load times even on dsl can be a bummer.
Navigation and simple, eye catching presentation is there at the moment. google and apple.