One thing I emphasize to ALL clients (and blog readers, and authors I work with, and everyone else who will listen) is that these days, you really do need a website that you own and control. After much planning and many requests, I have finally finished the video that will hopefully help you (no matter who you are or what skill level you have) take the plunge and make your website.
Here it is! I would recommend that you start here if you have a site that you know you want to build out. This one video will save you about $500 in setup fees, plus (to me) it is essential that you have control over your own domain and hosting, so this will get you there.
To answer your question, yes, I think you should do this even if you are going to hire someone to design or develop your site.
