For students of business, the Eliot Spitzer scandal opens a window into issues of the prostitution business that aren't unlike those of a legitimate enterprise. Perhaps it is the stuff of a Harvard Business School case study.

 PAYMENT: Emperors Club VIP management had strict rules about payment — major credit cards, authorized bank cashier's checks and most foreign currencies in advance. Add a 20% surcharge if you needed Emperors to exchange your currency, according to Emperors' now-defunct Web page.

When Spitzer was looking to purchase the services of Emperors Club's "Kristen" for an evening just before Valentine's Day, he had only a $400 credit on his Emperors account. Sticking to its guiding principle (no money, no action), Emperors kept the meeting on hold until Spitzer's payment arrived Feb. 13.

Not wanting to encounter payment issues next time around, Spitzer gave Kristen an extra $1,700 as a deposit toward a future transaction. (Her services that night went for $3,100).

Customers who paid cash got a discount. Two prostitutes for four hours came with a price tag of $3,600 for cash, but $4,140 on a credit card.

HIRING: Conversations the FBI captured from phone calls, e-mail and text messages showed some of Emperors' challenges. For example, two of the principals concluded that there was no point in advertising in Miami because of a tight supply of prostitutes.

In a different conversation, the two bemoaned that the Los Angeles market was sluggish because of too many girls, not enough demand.

HUMAN RESOURCES: Management had to retrain prostitutes who didn't take proper imprints on credit cards.

The company also faced typical challenges posed by working moms' schedules. In one conversation, management noted that a prostitute left her one-hour session after 40 minutes and supposed that she may have had to pick up her kids.