For starters, every website we build is based on your needs, not a generic template.
The reason it's important to state this is because you'll come across a lot of design firms offering you a "great website" for $999, and you won't realize that your site's going to be built off a standardized design that they also sold to some guy last week, and another two weeks before that!.
We listen to you, read your copy, check out your competitors, offer our opinions, adjust, adjust, adjust and then show you some work product. That's the only way we know how to get the wheel's turning.
At the end of it all, you end up with something from nothing and everyone's all smiles!