competitor

Any person or entity which is a rival against another. In business, a company in the same industry or a similar industry which offers a similar product or service. The presence of one or more competitors can reduce the prices of goods and services as the companies attempt to gain a larger market share. Competition also requires companies to become more efficient in order to reduce costs. Fast-food restaurants McDonald's and Burger King are competitors, as are Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and Wal-Mart and Target.

Do an analysis of how profitable each of your customers are. Often, the results will surprise you, because the biggest customers can often be less profitable than initially thought once all the time spent catering to their unique manufacturing and service requests is taken into account. Focus on the most profitable clients and figure out a way to make the less profitable ones more profitable. And once you have done this analysis on your business, do it on your competitors and go heavily after your competitor's most profitable clients. Leave them with the low-margin fruit.

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