I have customers who have paid me thousands of dollars every month, for years. I haven't met most of them face-to-face. It comes down to trust. Since 2014 I hav

I have customers who have paid me thousands of dollars every month, for years. I haven't met most of them face-to-face. It comes down to trust. Since 2014 I have worked through an agency that takes care of contracts, billing, payment, so that's one route. But even before going on with the agency I never had a problem getting paid. You should not put yourself in a position where a customer owes you a lot of money. I define "a lot" as an amount I would consider legal action to recover. Charge for deliverables with clear expectations and definition of "done." If you get a sketchy or slow-pay customer who argues about your bills, drop them, they're not worth it. Anecdotally I have known lots of freelancers in my career and slow pay/no pay is not a big problem for the freelancers who deliver what they promise and avoid the fringe customers. It's the customers who want you to clone eBay for $5,000 in a month who won't pay you. Reputable companies and organizations might take a while to cut a check but they won't screw you.