pport for all of their clients, however there are many other ways they can improve the customer's experience with them. For example, commerce is an inexpensive way to cater to the customer with a minimal investment. Some clients may prefer to pay with a credit card, net 30 terms, or electronic funds transfer. These practices are inexpensive to implement and are not yet in use by all of EBM's competitors. Another alternative that EBM could offer is shopping and purchasing IT related goods and services over the Internet. This would allow the customer to make more educated decisions without the pressure of a sales person. It could also enable EBM to process more sales without increasing their sales staff, thus keeping actual total cost the same while increasing total revenue. Because economic profits will increase as fixed costs decrease, EBM should evaluate the size the structure of their company to be sure it is as efficient as possible. They should also reevaluate many of their fixed costs such as rent, phone costs, and administrative personnel. The telephone industry is also becoming a competitive price searcher market and better deals can be found everyday. Most importantly, EBM must search for a niche were they can have market power. In order for a small local company, that does not have unlimited financial resources, to compete in a competitive price-searcher market it must find a unique product or service to offer. If this product or service caters to a small enough market, it will protect the small company from re-entering the price-searcher market. For example, this product may be used by near-surgeons during brain surgery. If the product is good enough to become a standard in the field and market remains small then it is unlikely that other seller will risk making an investment into that market. Therefore, if the number of sellers and number of customers remains small then there will be very little competitive pricing. This mono...
