A client asks to have their business name added to your lobby directory. You quote $15. They say yes before you finish the sentence.
That moment is the signal. The price wasn't what made them pause; they didn't pause at all.
Most centers set DBA and lobby listing prices once, usually early in their operation and usually low, and never revisit them. The result is a consistent revenue gap that won't appear on any dashboard but becomes obvious the moment you compare what those services cost to deliver against what you're charging.
What follows is a practical look at how to think about add-on pricing, where most centers undercharge, and how to present these services so clients see them as value rather than afterthoughts.
A DBA (Doing Business As) registration allows a client to legally operate under a name different from their legal name. Your center doesn't file the DBA. What you provide is the qualified address they need to complete the filing, and in many cases, a notarized letter or letter of authorization required by their county clerk.
A lobby listing is simpler: your client's business name appears on your building directory, whether physical or digital. To the client, it signals legitimacy. To their customers and vendors, it signals presence.
Both services are low-touch once the process is documented. That makes them high-margin. Most centers charge $10–$25 for lobby listings and $20–$40 for DBA support. Both are underpriced relative to the value they deliver.
The most common reason: the price was set during setup and treated as a line item rather than a product. Nobody went back to ask what the market would bear or what similar services cost elsewhere.
The second reason is positioning. When a center describes a lobby listing as "adding your name to the directory," it sounds administrative. When it's described as "a physical presence in a professional building," it sounds like something worth paying for. The service is identical. The perceived value is not.
Centers that charge more for these services rarely lose clients over price. Clients who care about a professional address already understand that presence has value. What they're paying for isn't the directory slot; it's the signal it sends.
Start with the filing costs in your market. County DBA filing fees range from $10 to $100 depending on the state. Your pricing should be independent of that — you're not a filing service. You're providing the qualified address, any required documentation, and administrative handling.
A reasonable range for DBA address support is $35–$75 as a one-time setup fee, with an optional annual renewal of $15–$30. If your current pricing is below $35, you're almost certainly undercharging.
If you provide a notarized letter or authorization letter for the DBA filing, price that separately at $25–$50 and present it as a professional document service, because that's what it is.
Lobby listings are recurring, and that distinction matters. A one-time $15 fee is worth less over a client's lifetime than a $10/month charge that compounds month over month.
The centers with the strongest add-on revenue have moved lobby listings from a one-time payment to a monthly line item. For new clients, this is straightforward to build into your onboarding flow. For existing clients, a modest annual increase is easier to absorb than a billing restructure.
As a general benchmark, your lobby listing fee should sit at 10–20% of your base virtual office rate. If your base plan is $50/month, a $5–$10 monthly lobby listing fee is in line with the market and rarely generates pushback.
The difference between one-time and recurring lobby listing pricing is easy to underestimate until you run the numbers.
A center with 40 virtual office clients, all paying a one-time $15 lobby listing fee, collects $600 total just once.
That same center, with lobby listings billed at $9/month, generates $4,320 per year from the same 40 clients. At 70% renewal, a conservative estimate for a well-run location, that's over $3,000 in year two without acquiring a single new client.
The same logic applies to DBA pricing. A center moving from $30 to $50 for DBA address support, across 30 DBA clients per year, adds $600 in annual revenue with no additional workload. Add a $20 annual renewal fee and 60% renewal rate, and that's another $360 per year compounding forward.
Neither change requires a new service. Both require a pricing decision.
Framing matters more than the price. "Would you like to add your name to our lobby directory for $10 a month?" is a question about cost. "We can make sure your business name is visible to anyone who visits the building; most clients include it for $10 a month" is a statement about presence. The price is the same. The close rate is not.
The best time to introduce add-ons is during onboarding, when the client is actively building their business presence. They're already thinking about legitimacy signals. A well-placed offer at that moment doesn't feel like an upsell; it feels like completing the setup.
Bundling is worth building into your onboard presentation. A named tier — "Professional Package" — that includes lobby listing, mail forwarding, and DBA support lets clients opt into a complete solution rather than evaluating each service individually. Bundled options consistently outperform itemized à la carte presentations, not because the price is lower, but because the decision is simpler.
If you're undercharging existing clients, a price adjustment is appropriate. Give 30 days' written notice and keep the increase proportionate. A 20–30% increase on a low-dollar add-on rarely triggers cancellations.
Frame the communication around what the client receives: "We're updating our lobby listing pricing to reflect the current market rate for professional directory placement." It's accurate and positions the service correctly.
Don't apologize for the increase. An apology implies the original price was fair and the new one isn't. State the change clearly, give clients time to respond, and move on.
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