Scandinavia Translations (Scantran) provides translation services from English and three Scandinavian languages (Danish, Swedish and Norwegian), and Finnish. Business operates primarily by one person, Heidi Wade, helped her husband Mike. The unique thing about Scantran that this is a purely virtual business: Heidi and Mike never meet, see, and rarely even speak to any one of his clients, nor any of their individual translators. Almost all the business is done through the Internet, fax supplemented, and sometimes by phone. The documents are mainly transmitted as a file attachment in the Internet e-mail. There are no other full-time employees, and all work is done from the apartment of the spouses, without the overhead costs such as office space or a fixed salary. Scantran business grew rapidly from its inception. Wades face a number of decisions, including whether to try to stay the size they are, or "go for growth", which implies the adoption of new business models. If the decision is to grow, what should the new business model be? Can the company maintain flexibility provided via the Internet and is still expanding? This case illustrates the pros and cons of virtual small business, typical of many Internet addicts run companies founded in recent years. "Hide
by Sid L. Huff, Mike Wade Source: Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation 18 pages. Publication Date: March 3, 1998. Prod. #: 98E010-PDF-ENG
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