That means making a decision about whether it's worth the hassel of trying to get paid by a deadbeat. If so, that means taking legal action. In my experience sometimes it's worth suing a deadbeat, sometimes it isn't. The high order bit on when it isn't worth it is when the deadbeat has gone broke. The high order bit on when it is is a relationship that has devolved into "Fuck you, Pay me." It's rare that the emotional value of getting paid is worth the emotional cost and financial risk of suing. There are opportunity costs for a small business when resources are devoted to chasing deadbeats instead of new work.
Personally, I always use written contracts with clear payment and termination terms. Typically I require a meaningful retainer. The retainer gets applied against final invoice and is large enough that I shouldn't have to go upside down where the client owes me money. This puts it in their interest to tell me explicitly if the project dies rather than implicitly via unpaid invoices. Whenever a client doesn't pay an invoice without a heads up, I stop work and call.
Here's the thing: good clients are clients who intend to pay, and good clients are never offended by written contracts. The times when things need to be loose with good clients is when speed is critical and there's an established working relationship, and when speed is critical then all it takes is a check to get started. A client who balks at a contract or writing a retainer check is a red flag. If they can't write a retainer, then they haven't allocated the funds for my work. That's not a good omen.
That means making a decision about whether it's worth the hassel of trying to get paid by a deadbeat. If so, that means taking legal action. In my experience sometimes it's worth suing a deadbeat, sometimes it isn't. The high order bit on when it isn't worth it is when the deadbeat has gone broke. The high order bit on when it is is a relationship that has devolved into "Fuck you, Pay me." It's rare that the emotional value of getting paid is worth the emotional cost and financial risk of suing. There are opportunity costs for a small business when resources are devoted to chasing deadbeats instead of new work.
Personally, I always use written contracts with clear payment and termination terms. Typically I require a meaningful retainer. The retainer gets applied against final invoice and is large enough that I shouldn't have to go upside down where the client owes me money. This puts it in their interest to tell me explicitly if the project dies rather than implicitly via unpaid invoices. Whenever a client doesn't pay an invoice without a heads up, I stop work and call.
Here's the thing: good clients are clients who intend to pay, and good clients are never offended by written contracts. The times when things need to be loose with good clients is when speed is critical and there's an established working relationship, and when speed is critical then all it takes is a check to get started. A client who balks at a contract or writing a retainer check is a red flag. If they can't write a retainer, then they haven't allocated the funds for my work. That's not a good omen.
Good luck.