I'm afraid I may not be the best person to answer that. I'm not a freelance graphic designer. I sort of stumbled into this position when I moved from CT and left my photography business behind. I went into this gourmet chocolate company looking for work - any work. They saw my resume and decided to take all their photography and marketing in-house. So I work solely with them.
However, as a former small business owner, I understand budget is probably your biggest concern. (If it's not, you could easily just hire a photographer and graphic designer to create the materials you need.) One of the ways I worked with my small budget to market my business was by bartering. And you're in a great industry to barter since most people love chocolate!
Think about how much the artwork is worth to you. That's hard to do. But think about the potential for growth your business has by being presented well.
I keep wanting to lay out numbers for you but I just don't know what graphic designers are charging right now. Just consider the fact that when you barter, you're bartering the value of your product, not the cost. To clarify, if you charge $10 (value) for a box of chocolates which only cost you $5 (cost), you're effectively getting the graphic design services at half price because you're bartering what they charge for their services with what you charge for your product.
Not everyone will barter. But lots will. It can't hurt to ask.
If you can't find anyone to barter, ask about payment options. I personally feel that the images of your chocolate and the design of your marketing pieces is second in priority just after the quality of the chocolate itself. If you have amazing chocolate and horrible images of it, it won't sell. If you have crappy chocolate and great images of it, it'll sell.
Feel free to give me some more specific details about your situation and I'll see if I can give you any more guidance. For example, what kind of budget have you set aside for marketing? (What percent of your gross?) Who have you found that you would love to have photograph your chocolate? What do they charge? What do you get in return? How about graphic designers? Who have you found and what are they asking?
