A receivable against a company with no money is worth the paper it is printed on. You're (typically) an unsecured creditor in the event of a bankruptcy. It is

A receivable against a company with no money is worth the paper it is printed on. You're (typically) an unsecured creditor in the event of a bankruptcy. It is highly likely your invoice is worthless in the event of a bankruptcy. You should start lining up more stable employment. Also, I'd give some consideration to telling your customer "I'm not a bank and didn't get into this relationship out of desire to be exposed to credit risk. Going forward, we're going to mutually decide to move to Net 15 invoicing on a biweekly cycle." The goal here is to extend less credit to an entity which is clearly a poor credit risk. Edit to add: Circumstantial evidence and years of dealing with people on HN asking similar questions suggests to me that you are likely pricing your services at a discount to what they are worth. If so, you should probably charge more. This will both allow your business to be insulated from periodic credit risks that freelancing entails, and allow customers who are not well-qualified to use your services to self-select away from using you in a way which does not leave you holding the bag. My assumption, if your rates were appropriate and if you were not truly irreplaceable, is that a client in financial trouble would terminate your engagement amicably prior to going to more drastic steps like laying off employees.