[notimportant]

Agreed - while it seems to be a nice lifestyle for some, the stress of not having a steady paycheck, the constant seeking for new work and the obvious role of being a debt collector makes it something that I'm not sure if I personally can do (I am dealing with a client who owes me money from March and I am still having a hard time getting them to pay up at this point).

[kls]

I guess maybe I am lucky or it may be a case of the worst experiences seem to have the highest volume setting in our brain and people focus on the horror stories. But I have only had one non-payment in the entirety of my freelancing experience. All of my clients pay on time (net 30) and I always require 50% payment for the first invoice before I start work. I do this to ensure that I have a paying customer and if they are not willing to front 50% for operation costs associated with the development then they are most likely not a customer that I would want.

The chasing of debt has never been more than a friendly reminder email and my paycheck has always been steady to the extent that I can decide how much I want to earn that week with a pretty handsome upper-bound. It may be the type of consulting that I do (it is not a saturated market) but my experience has been pretty good and I have been at this off and on for a while.

[notimportant]

I have had some great experiences as well; but there have been a slight handful that just are very slow to pay. The person I am hunting down for payment now has agreed to pay me as well as paid over half of their money owed - it's just they are taking a lot longer than is acceptable.

If I knew I could have a more reliable flow of income, freelancing/contracting would be amazing.

[kls]

You could always factor your receivables and let them chase in the event of non-payment. This takes you out of the accounting and finance game, but you do give up a percentage of the amount of the receivable. I know as few people who do it as they have no interest in running their accounting operations. The factor acts as an accounts payable department with the added benefit that you get your money up front and don't take the risk of non-payment. Now if the client is a high risk client it is usually reflected in the discount on the receivable that you must provide. Many non paying customers, become good paying customers when a factor is involved because they don't play games. Best part is you don't have to play bad guy, because you "sold" the receivable so it is not the actions or the responsibility of your company to enforce payment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoring_(finance)