A great small business example of the custom-template process is NYBoat.com, which charters two yachts out of the NYC area for corporate events, weddings and other celebrations. They needed a image-rich site that showed off their signature yacht, the Royal Princess.
The original template had a nautical theme and was purchased for $55 from Template Monster. The images for the template we complete changed and optimized for the site. Pull down menus were introduced to accommodate over 100 pages, and a custom logo and header was created, new text colors, etc.
The new site still has the original look and feel but has been improved and customized.