The power of the Internet has given rise to two types of employees, and this is the physical employee and the virtual employee. The physical employee is an individual that you hire in person; you know how they look, they live in the same area as you do, and you can literally look over their shoulders as they work on the projects you give them. The virtual employee, on the other hand, is just the opposite. You will often have no idea how they look, you won't be able to look over their shoulders to see how they are doing, and you will hire them over the Internet. More than likely, they will not live in the same area as you do.
There are pros and cons to both types of employees, and the enterprising freelancer that is looking to expand his/her business will need to think carefully about which one they will choose. The physical employee is advantageous in the sense that communication will be a lot stronger. Because they may be working with you in an office, any questions they have can be immediately answered by you. There is no need to worry about sending emails back and forth, and the delay that this entails. In addition to this, if the employee is doing something wrong, you can discover it a lot faster than you would when working with someone over the Internet.
The second advantage of hiring a physical employee is that payments can be made directly. Instead of having to pay the employee electronically, which would incur fees, paying them physically can bypass these fees altogether. While this doesn't have much of an effect on you as the business owner, your employee will find it to be highly desirable. The down side to having a physical employee is that you may need to have them work with you in your office or home, which may be problematic depending on the circumstances.
When dealing with a physical employee, you may also have to deal with tardiness or other problems of this nature. The element of human psychology comes into play when you're dealing with people in person, and if you have a problem working with people, then you may not do so well when it comes to dealing with a physical employee. A virtual employee, on the other hand, is different in almost every way. Because you can't see them in person, you have no way of knowing whether or not they're working on the project, unless you email them to request an update.
Even if you do request an update, there is a possibility that they may lie or give you bogus info as to their status. In a nutshell, when working with a virtual employee, you can never be sure what they're doing until you receive the end result of their work, or you request whatever they have done so far, at which point you may find that they haven't done anything. The good thing about a virtual employee is that you don't need to rent office space in order to accommodate them, since in all likelihood, they will be operating out of their own home as you are. Another advantage of hiring a virtual employee is that if they live in the opposite time zone from you, this means that they can be working on the project while you're sleeping, and vice versa, which means the project can be completed within a short period of time.
A physical employee will live in the same time zone that you live in, which means that they will likely be sleeping whenever you are. But an employee who lives on the opposite side of the planet can prove to be advantageous because they can increase your rate of speed, which means more production and a larger bottom line. However, regardless of whether you choose a virtual employee, a physical employee, or a combination of both, you will face challenges when dealing with them. Many of these challenges are directly related to human psychology.