0 Questions about changing your site's layout and design

So I was staring at my blog for quite a while now. I've been thinking of so many things I'm planning to do with it. But first things first, I need to change the lay out and design. The thing is, I'm no web designer for crying out loud. The template I'm using now is something I found on Blogger Templates. I'm quite hesitant as well because it might affect my site's traffic. I've been trying to find a fairly cheap web designer to do the lay out for me but it's pretty hard as I'm quite busy myself. Below are my questions with regards to changing of lay out or web design, feel free to share your opinions (I would be more than eager to hear them I swear):

1. Will my website's design/lay out affect my visibility in the search engines? (My daily visitors increased rapidly with the constant updates on my site, I really don't want to lose all that traffic)

2. Any idea where I could find a decent lay out for blogger/blogspot sites? (How I wish I chose wordpress instead of blogspot, it's easier to navigate and a lot of templates to choose from *based on my experience*)

3. Do you have referrals of web artists/ designers I could afford?

4. What color is advisable for a finance related site? ( I basically sticked with white for the main purpose of it is easier to read with a black text/ white back ground concept)

You might wonder why I don't just search my questions up in Google, well the answer is -I'm lazy. I really value personal referrals rather than what Google tells me. Besides, wouldn't it be fun sharing ideas and interacting with other bloggers? Hope you guys could help me out with my questions.