Logos are very important no matter what kind of business you have. If you are running a local business, then a logo should be one of the first things that you put out there. The benefit of a logo is that people will recognize them much easier than a companie’s name. The reason this happens is because people remember objects and images with ease, unlike words and lettering. Now, if you company has a name that is rather hard to pronounce then it makes sense to use an logo for branding purposes rather than your companies name.
As far as the benefit of custom logos, there are tons of them. The best part about a custom logo is that nobody will get your logo confused with that of your competitors. A lot of companies will use logos of bigger corporations and all this does is helps build the brand of that bigger corporation. Do yourself and your company a favor and make sure your logo stands out the rest of the logos out there. If your logo is too much like another one, then it is pointless to market it. I know that logo designers can cost quite a bit but they are not that expensive if you think of them in terms of a long term investment.