I am pretty proud of the look of my site using just the blue derfault template, and a nice header image I made. Check it out at
http://edsets.com
This mod took me all of about two hours, mostly to create the image you see at the top. I am by no means, a graphic artist, however. Photoshop is my buddy.
I have found my customers like the site, regardless the look, but this one is very space efficient, easy to work with visually, and is clean and easy on the eyes.
You don't want to change your templates a lot, customers tend to like familiarity. I offer Google as the best example of 'clean, simple, efficient' being very attractive.
As for 'being in business vs playing', a big DITTO. My site is a workhorse, is visited by nearly 200 unique folks a day most months. If it's not working, I hear about it immediately!
Ed
Ed