As a non-web developer (I'm a lawyer) I learned long ago that there is a financial point at which the balance of power switches from me to the client. When the

As a non-web developer (I'm a lawyer) I learned long ago that there is a financial point at which the balance of power switches from me to the client. When the client owes me a trivial amount of money I can afford to walk away from the job if I want to. If the client owes me a lot of money, now I am shackled to that client (and the job) because I am chasing my own money. The key is to never let the client owe you too much. For me this number is about $2,500. The way I solve this problem is (1) by getting a substantial amount of money up front; if I get ANY guff from the prospective client when I ask for money, I know how I will be treated for the rest of the project and I may choose to back off at that point. (2) watch the invoicing very carefully and if they are slow in paying, stop work until they pay. Mr. Pavlov's ideas are in action here: the client is rewarded for slow pay by halting of work with a message "Hey you owe money."