Application Protection

One if the first things I learned when I started with C# was the most important one. You can decompile any .NET assembly with Reflector or other tools. Many developers are not aware of this fact and most of them are shocked when I show them their source code.

Protection against decompilation is still a difficult task. I am still looking for a fast, easy and secure way to do it. I don't want to obfuscate my code so my method names will be a,b,c or so. Reflector or other tools should be unable to recognize my application as .NET assembly at all. I know about some tools already but they are very expensive. Is there any other way to protect my applications?

EDIT:

The reason for my question is not to prevent piracy. I only want to stop competitors from reading my code. I know they will and they already did. They even told me so. Maybe I am a bit paranoid but business rivals reading my code doesn't make me feel good.