Imagine a website whose visitors might need a caregiver for their mother, a bag of gari, a tow at two in the morning, or a used car. That was the brief for House of Lims.

House of Lims is a family-run group in Hagerstown, Maryland. It started as one home care agency, The Lord Is My Shepherd Home Care, and grew into seven businesses: home care, an African market and restaurant, towing, auto sales, a car wash and shipping. They share an address, two phone lines and a reputation. They serve completely different customers.

A single brochure page would have failed all of them. Seven separate websites would have lost the thing that makes the group special: one family, one set of values. Here is how we designed one website that does both, and what any group of businesses can take from it.

Start with the visitor's need, not the organisation chart

Most group websites open with the company: who we are, our history, our brands. Visitors do not care yet. They came with a problem.

The House of Lims home page opens with one question: What do you need help with today? A banner steps through each part of the group with its services, and both phone numbers are one tap away. Someone who needs a tow can call within seconds, without reading a word about home care.

Group the businesses so people can scan

Seven options in a row is a lot to read on a phone. Seven options in three groups is easy.

The businesses are organised into three houses: The Caring House, The Feeding House and The Motor House. The names do real work. A visitor looking for food knows which group to look at before they have read a single business name, and the structure makes the family story clear without explaining it.

Show live hours, not just opening times

A towing service and a restaurant have very different hours, and a static list of opening times makes the visitor do the maths. At two in the morning, the only question is: are they open now?

Every business on the House of Lims site shows whether it is open right now and when it closes. It is a small feature that saves a wasted phone call, and it makes each business feel like a real, active place.

One template, seven personalities

Every business gets its own page built from the same parts: a plain-language headline, service categories, hours, an open or closed badge, the address and map, and one primary action.

The template keeps all seven businesses consistent. Within it, each business still gets the action that fits it. Home care asks you to request a consultation. Towing asks you to call now. The same kind of button does a different job for each business.

Tell the family story once, properly

The group's values are what connects a home care agency to a car wash, so they deserve a proper home instead of a line in every footer. The Our Story page explains the family, the Psalm 23 name behind "The Lord Is My Shepherd", and the values the businesses share. Visitors who want to know who they are dealing with can find it. Visitors who just need a tow are not made to read it.

Hire from one front door

Seven businesses means seven sets of vacancies. Seven separate hiring processes would mean seven inboxes, seven forms and applicants who are not sure where to apply.

The site has one careers hub for the whole group. It lists openings when roles are advertised, takes an open application for any business at other times, and lets applicants check the status of their application. Staff sign in to a private admin area to manage listings and applications. This is where the site stops being a brochure and becomes software, built as a custom Laravel application rather than a template site.

When one site is right, and when it is not

A group website works when the businesses share something customers care about: a family name, a location, a reputation. It does not mean a business cannot have more. LIMS Home Care, the agency the group grew from, also has a full website of its own, which we built as well.

If you run more than one business and your website is making customers work to find the right one, talk to us. See how we approach website design and development and custom web applications.