Archive for the ‘Contracting’ Category

Today’s final post is a letter which I dearly wish I could send back in time to myself in the past; a younger me from ten years ago when I first made the leap from permanent employment status to Freelancer.   I think it will be useful to other freelancers who are either just starting out, or are struggling.

Without any further delay or waffle…

Dear younger and more inexperienced me,

As you read this, you will be just starting out freelancing. It’s a scary experience. There is nobody to hold your hand, or guide you, or give you advice. At least, I know it seems this way. But I wanted to drop you a quick line to reassure you about a few things. Plus I wanted to include some really good advice, which will stop you making some silly and expensive mistakes.

It may seem that you are own your own, but there are a lot of great resources out there. The web is full of freelancers who have gone through what you are going through, and some people have been kind enough to write those experiences down in books or web blogs (such as this one) – all it takes is for you to take the effort to read them, understand them, and follow the advice. But remember, if you don’t bother looking, or take that advice, and you make the mistakes other are trying to help you avoid – then there is nobody to blame than yourself.

I am sorry to say that there will be hard times, and tough times, times full of worry when you wont be able to sleep at night, times of self doubt, and times where things seem very unfair. All freelancers and small business owners go through this, but at the end of the day, you will do OK. Anybody who makes the effort to rise above the average, who has put in the hard work, and uses the resources that are out there will do OK – better than OK in fact. In the end, choosing a freelance life will be one of the best decisions you will ever make.

But there are things that will help you on your way. Dear younger me, please listen to these, because these are nuggets of wisdom from years of experience. These tips will save you time, money, effort, and will make the whole thing so much more enjoyable. They will also allow you to rise above the troubling times.

My advice to you as you start out freelancing is:

1. When times seem tough, don’t sweat the small stuff. If things seem unfair – that’s because they are – nobody ever said life was going to be a fair game. Either accept those things as unfair and move on, or change them. But don’t lose sleep about the small or unfair things
2. Build up your list of supporters from the start. Have a good bank manager who you can contact whenever you want, an accountant who will explain things to you in detail, and make sure your partner (wife/husband) is included in everything you do
3. Do not let the accountant run your finances. Keep everything close. Don’t let the accountant charge you too much or have your accounts vanish in to a black hole. Instead, use online accounting from day one (the accountant should be there to sign off the accounts and save your money). Having a clear picture of your accounts and cash flow every moment is key not only in making decisions, but allowing you to sleep at night.
4. Know what you are doing it all for. Have a set of goals, and review them regularly. Get hold of a copy of the success principles, and read it – twice a year. It’s the best book on the planet! Trust me on that
5. Do not waste effort trying to keep everybody up to date on project progress – you will end up stressing about projects and being overworked. Instead, invest in a cloud based project management system – the moment you do, your business world will change in leaps and bounds. You will never look back
6. Don’t chase the money. Customers will try to take you in directions you are not prepared to go. It’s ok to say no if the work does not interest you, is not inline with what you want to do, or how you picture your small company. Be strong with customers.
7. Don’t be scared to take on work involving skills you don’t have. Whilst you will be reluctant to do this initially, eventually you will come to realise that this will lead to you growing in skills and confidence, which will make your time more valuable.
8. Invest in time management tools. Your time is money, so use tools like Evernote to keep track of everything you do and create, and re-use it over and over again. When you start doing this, you will see your worth grow.
9. Get everything down on paper – simple terms, agreements and contracts – and get them signed. This will get you out of more problems than you could possibly imagine.
10. And get a mentor. Approach your old bosses, or a local mentoring group, and become accountable. It’s also a great way to make new friends and stay in touch with what is happening ion the business world.

Younger me, its important to remember to enjoy the ride. Yes, times will be tough, customers nasty, and sometimes money will be tight – but nether the less, enjoy the ride. Getting where ever you are going is half the fun.

Regards

A more experienced Me

And that’s It!!
At the start of 2012, I said that this blog would finished at the end of 2012 – and as I type this, it’s December 2012.  So that’s it – the blog is done.  There is no more.

Dear reader, whoever you are, I really hope that you have found this blog useful.  I have found it fun to create, and get my thoughts, systems, and processes down on (electronic) paper.   I hope that you have gained something from reading my advice.

My advice does work.  I am not perfect, I do not run the perfect company, I make as many mistakes as any other person out there, but my company has grown year in and year out using the tips I have written down.  Most of my advice comes from people who are far more experienced and successful than me – so if any of my advice, or systems I describe feel right to you – give them a try – see if they will help you grow your own company.

As I sign off from my blog, I wish you dear reader well.  I hope your company grows as you want it to, and I hope to meet you in the real world at some point.

As for me, I will continue on with growing my business, heading towards my goals, but now without the need to document it here.  This blog will remain on the net until the end of 2013, at which time it will then be consigned to the great internet dustbin.

Goodbye and good luck.

Jaffa Brown
Author of this Web site , Freelancer, Small Business Owner and passionate goal setter/achiever
December 20^th, 2012.

In a previous post, I talked about how I occasionally like to mix up my freelance working practices by working as an IT contractor on a customer site. The reason for doing this (if you don’t want to read the original entry) is to keep up to date with what is happening in the real world in terms of customer expectations, technologies and environments.

Now whilst selling freelance and small business services means putting on a sales hat and talking benefits and features, landing a contract is all down to the interview.

Throughout my freelancing career, I have done four contracts, and attended around twenty two contract role interviews. In all of those interviews, there has only ever been one occurrence where I was not offered the role. In most cases, I have 3 or 4 offers on the table, and it comes down to selecting the role I prefer.

I believe the reason why I was offered so many roles comes down to one important interview tip:

Give a Killer Answer to the Trick Question
I am sure that the people who have hired me have other candidates with similar or better technical skills, similar or better experience, and similar office/interpersonal skills. If they are any thing like me when I am interviewing for candidates (which I am often asked to do when freelancing for companies) the stream of people I am interviewing soon becomes a blur.

So I make sure I stand out with my Killer Answer to their Trick Question.

All interviewers at some point will ask what they think is a trick question. It may be in the form of “Whats your biggest weakness” or “Whats the number one thing you would bring to this role” or even “Why should we give the contract to you?”. I have found generally, all interviews will consist of such a question in different forms.

And my killer answer to any such question is always “Oh, Its because I am lazy!!”.

Yep – I know. It sounds mad. Why would I say such a thing? Why would I say I am lazy?

Simple – its an answer they wont expect. It’s a surprise. It will shock them awake. They will take notice. I will be remembered.

But clearly, if that was my whole answer, then its unlikely I would land any contracts. So I continue after a brief pause to let the answer soak in and have an impact!

“Oh, its because I am lazy!!!!” Pause (count to three)….”Sorry – that’s not quite right. Lazy is the wrong word. What I mean is that I avoid doing more work than is required. If a task needs something put together, I will look at what I have done in the past, or what is already in place, to reuse it as much as possible, which of course will save time and effort and build on what already works. Yes, sorry, lazy is the wrong word. Efficient – that’s a better word.”

That is a great answer as it shocks them to take notice, gets them thinking, then reassures them that they are going to get the biggest bang for their buck by hiring you.

Again, I know it sounds mad, but I make a point of using this killer answer to their tricky questions, and only once has it ever let me down.

And I have been interviewing people myself for over 20 years – I know what interviewers are expecting and what they want to hear in an answer.

Give it a try yourself.

I am going to get straight to the point… when you are working on a customers site on a fixed term contract, who do you think is the most important person in the company?

Do you think it’s the end users of your service – the staff within the company who will use the products, services, management or consultation you are providing?

Do you think it is the top level boss of the company – the MD, FD or CEO?

Do you think its that person who insists you help them – the one who always goes whining to everybody when they are not happy?

Do you think it’s the person who pays the bills – the head of the finance department?

I am going to suggest the most important person is…. the person who originally agreed for you to start work on the contract. Simply because – it is they who will make the decision whether to keep you on when it comes to contract renewal time.

You may have done a lot of great work for the MD, helped out one thousand end users, and assisted all your new friends in the desks around you with their technical work, but if that person who employed you is not aware of all your activity, then your perceived value is greatly reduced, and this will impact you when they are weighing up whether to renew you or just let your existing contract end and let you leave.

So whatever you do, make sure that person who controls your contract is your VIP.

Give them a special “I always pick up for you” ring tone on your phone, make sure your client email system highlights all their emails, and make sure their work is always a high propriety in your do list (dropping other work when they give you a new action).

That is, assuming you want to be renewed in your contract.

When negotiating with prospects, you will sometimes come across the ‘Day Rate Apprehensive’ customer.

Generally, such customers will demand to know your day rate (even if you intend to quote a fixed price project), and will make all kinds of ‘ohhhhh’ or ‘hmmmmm’ noises, and will try to get you to drop your day rate down.

How should a freelancer, contractor or small business owner deal with those demanding a reduction in your day rate?

I have found the best way to keep the rate the same whilst still winning the business is to make them realise that negation on day rate has absolutely nothing to do with the price they will end up paying.

My two suggestions are:

Option 1 – The Duration Equation.  In this discussion, yes, the day rate is indeed one side of the equation.  BUT, so is the duration – how long the project will take to complete.  Talking about a day rate without considering the effect on duration is a zero-net equation.  As the day rate drops, so the duration will increase to balance out the work cost (even if you actually spend the same real time doing the work, and the slack time working on other projects).

Option 2 – The Quality Equation.  In this discussion, you may be asked to talk about the day rate but also talk about the duration – in which case the final part of the equation is the quality.  This is like haggling over the cost of apples; you may get the same quantity of apples for 4p each rather than the premium 20p apples, but they will be bruised or rotten.  If just getting a cheaper apple is the ONLY goal, then a cheaper cost per item is a quick win for the customer – but will either of you be happy in the end?  No!!!  This is the negotiation to be having with your prospect – a cheaper day rate for the same duration may involve a less skilled (outsourced to a lower skill level) freelancer or overseas development house, which in the end may mean a lower quality delivery, which will then cost more with fixes and problems.

Remember, when you offer a service, you can offer it delivered quickly, cheaply and for the delivery to work – but your prospect can only pick two out of the three.

When your prospect demands all three (and a low day rate), they are really asking for a sub-standard delivery which will cost somebody (either you, or your prospect) more in the longer term.  Unless you are really desperate for work, it could end up being you who pays the additional cost, so this is a prospect you should be walking away from.

One of the things that has been playing on my mind for the last couple of years has been newsletters.   I have read many books, read many blogs and heard many presenters talk about how a newsletter can keep you in a customers/prospects mind.   Yes, it all sounds great, but why would anybody want to read a newsletter about my small insignificant company?  I mean, ‘breaking news – we have a new pot plant’ just seemed so ridiculous.  Yet people go on and on about having a newsletter.

Last week I had a breakthrough, thanks to a fellow freelancer who I met at a technical seminar.  Over lunch we got chatting about freelancing, about the time drain that is ‘social media’ and then about newsletters.   He said that newsletters had generated a lot of business for him – so I asked what he did.

Newsletters – Are not about News
The advice I received was that newsletters are not in fact about news.  He agreed that nobody really cares about you, or your company or your products, or your services, or the new office pot plant.  None of this does anything for them.  In a word, it’s not useful.

What he did was to turn it into something which delivered value – but didn’t try to sell.   Having your name. company name and company logo in front of people on a regular basis is enough to keep you in their mind.  He let the constant contact keep his name in everybody’s in tray, but added value to make sure the emails were opened.

So what was his technique?

Share your knowledge on what you do
Its as simple as that.  Don’t have a newsletter full of your latest projects – just have a newsletter full of your latest tips.  Create from what you know and do.

If you create databases, have regular updates on new functions you have created, clever SQL scripts for doing calculations, or methods of moving databases.  If you are a coder or web designer, have a newsletter with CSS examples, or useful subroutines or functions.   Provide value to make sure your newsletter is opened every time – and maybe even shared with other people.

It’s a small piece of the Puzzle
Now it may seem that by having a newsletter with a subroutine or function or other bit of code may be giving stuff away for free – and your right, it is just that – free work.  But, the bit you give away is a tiny, insignificant, but useful single part of the whole puzzle.   That routine may be useful to an old customer or future prospect, but because it’s so small, they cannot complete the whole jigsaw with just that one piece – they still need somebody to create the whole thing and put it together.

A useful technique is to make sure that when you do send out useful stuff in your newsletters, you include comment lines in any example functions and procedures to show what it does, how it works, and make sure to include your name, company and contact details (web URL, email and phone number).   That way, if it does add value, your details are always on hand should they look to expand their project and need your assistance (or your details are in the code at their office if they just cut and paste the code you send out).

After all, the whole point of a newsletter is to keep your name and contact details in front of your old contacts and future prospects.

How to get Four times the value
The other technique that I learned (from a 2^nd freelancer who joined in our conversation) was to get multiple value from each entry – by reuse.

I have written in the past about my technique of storing useful new techniques and functions I create in Evernote so I can use them in future projects – well this reuse idea just expands for the newsletter.

When I am working on a customer project and I develop a new useful function (say a SQL function to turn a date into a financial month and/or year), I copy that to Evernote for future use.  But now what I do is I also turn this into a quick newsletter for my contact list – it doesn’t have to be a long letter (in fact the shorter, the better) – I just explain what it is, how it works, and include the function.  Another free newsletter is created.

Then what I do, is I take the exact same newsletter text, and post it on my company blog web site – so it adds value and search ability to my web site.

One bit of created script or function (for a customer project that I am already being paid for) is then used 4 times – on the project, into Evernote for future projects, into my newsletter, and then on my company blog.  Maximum value for minimum effort.  Perfect.

Next time, I am going to talk about how I get names on my newsletter list, and what software I use.

Time rules over us without mercy. Not caring if we’re healthy or ill. Hungry or drunk. Russian, American, beings from Mars. It’s like a fire, it could either destroy us or it could keep us warm. That’s why every FedEx office has a clock, because we live or we die by the clock,. We never turn our back on it and we never ever allow ourselves the sin of losing track of time.

~ Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks), from the Movie Cast Away, by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 2000

Time is a strange thing. Its said that it’s the only thing that cannot be bought, that we all have the same quantity of, and that is only valued when we run out of it. For freelancers, it may also be the one thing that we can easy forget to control.

I am sure as a freelancer and/or small business owner, you have everything buttoned down in terms of your rates, your price lists and your product prices. But what about time? Have you set your limits regarding time?

Or let me put it this way. I am a customer of yours – I have purchased your products in the past, and have paid you some decent money in the past, but we have no active projects ongoing at the moment. Now I phone you up (or email you) and ask you for a favour – can you quickly describe how I do something. It will only take 5 minutes of your time. So do you charge me for it?

As a customer I would probably not expect to have to pay for a quick answer – and you want to keep me happy in case there is the chance of more work, and its too much hassle to raise an invoice for 5 minutes of work – so its done as a freebie. But what about if the answer took more than 5 minutes? What about if it took ten or fifteen – do you charge me now? What about 20, or 30, or 40? How about an hour, two, or six hours?

The point is, you need a line – a point in time when a favour turns into a chargeable task. And you need to know what that line is before the line is reached. One of the things that will annoy customers are ‘rules’ which are made up on the fly – because you feel like it. Suddenly deciding that a task is going to take too long or they have called you x many times this month and so you are going to charge them is just going to annoy the customer – especially when you didn’t charge them last month.

The other thing to consider with time is – what is your minimum time period for changeability.

When you call out a plumber, they charge by the hour. They come out for ten minutes, you are paying them for an hour of their time. The same is generally true of solicitors. So what about you?

For me – I have a line of 2 hours (or a quarter of a day). If somebody wants me to do something which is going to take more than 5 minutes (and is not related to an ongoing project or support contract), my minimum time which I charge for is ¼ of a day. Of course, I am happy to do quick tasks for free if they really are 5 minutes, but if they are longer or a person calls lots of times and the time adds up to over 2 hours in a month, I will stop and say its time to pay. I also make it clear to my customer that my time is measured in quarter of a day slots, and if they want my time, a quarter of a day is the minimum that they will be charged.

Of course, this is a minimum. It more than likely will be a whole day or a week or month – but my minimum is quarter of a day.

So what about you?

Something strange is going on this year.  I have been asked to provide either guidance or estimations for taking over more ‘failed’ projects from other freelancers or companies than any other year.  This week alone, I have been contacted by no less than six companies asking for estimations for taking over projects.

Now don’t get me wrong, gaining work from other peoples mistakes or failed efforts is just as good as winning new work.  But what makes any of us believe that we can do a better job than the last freelancer or company?

Generally, when I have finished discussing the project with the prospect on the phone or in a briefing meeting, I come away thinking ‘this is an easy project, I could do this with my eyes shut’.  Well guess what – the guy or gal you are being asked to replace most likely had the exact same thoughts at the end of their briefing.   If it was that easy, why are they being replaced?

Here are 10 things to watch out for or give thought to when taking over a failing project:

1. We all think that our companies are the best, that we as individuals are more talented, and we have better methods and processes.   I can guarantee that the freelancer or company that you are being asked to replace had the same view.   Are you really so different?  Bear this in mind when considering your responses.
2. If the last freelancer or company negotiated any money in advance, bear in mind that the project may not have the funds left to complete the work – get the money issue sorted as soon as possible
3. The project will undoubtedly be behind schedule by the time you get involved.   Make sure you can extend the deadlines already set otherwise you will be in the same position as the last freelancer
4. You need to check how much freedom you have in terms of ‘starting again’ or if they want you to just take over – sometimes there is nothing worse than taking over a project and having to build on somebody else’s failing code, designs or other foundations
5. On the basis that the previous freelancer was as equally skilled as you, there is a reason they have failed with this project and customer.   What is the customer not telling you?  Why did the last freelancer or company fail?  Ask those difficult and probing questions.
6. When you come into a failing project, the customer will already have the project tagged as doomed.  Establish what are the ‘quick wins’ that will be needed to turn the project around and restore faith.
7. Check the legal situation.  If you are asked to take over a project, don’t take the customers word that you can use the other freelancer’s code/designs/ideas.   If they have in their contract that the technology belongs to them until it is paid for, you may be building on a foundation which may get pulled without warning
8. If the project has failed once, it is more likely that the project would fail again for the same reason that you have not yet been made aware of (maybe the customer keeps changing their mind during the development).   Make sure that your agreements, money payments and rights are even tighter and stricter than they normally would be
9. If the previous freelancer or company knows they are being replaced and are happy about the situation, see if you can arrange a conversation to get their side of the story.  They may have information that would benefit either you working on the project, or you deciding to walk away.
10. At the end of the day, taking over a failing project is always more dangerous than working in a green field.  If your heart, your mind or you gut are telling you that the project is too easy, the grass too green, or its too good to be true – then it is.  Walk away.

A few months ago I talked about the different emails I use for chasing late payers.   Judging by the interest this post received, it seems that late payers are becoming more and more of a problem for freelancers and small business owners.

As regular readers will know, I am an advocate of using cloud based accounting software – and my choice for this type of service is FreeAgent.

As I received so much interest in the late payment email templates, and a few questions on how I set up automatic chasing of late payers, I thought I would today share how I set up Freeagent to do the escalation for me.

I am sure that many, if not all, of the other accounts systems out there have similar late payment escalation systems in place – so this will be just as relevant.

Setting up Late Payment Chase Escalation in FreeAgent
One of the things I love about freeagent is that in many aspects of the accounting process, you can set something up and forget about it.  This is equally true for chasing late payers as it is for setting up standing orders or salary payments.   In terms of setting up late payment chase emails, it’s just a matter of setting up the email templates, and letting FreeAgent get on with it.

Within the Freeagent system, under the main settings menu (at the top of the screen), there is an option of Invoices and Estimates, and under this, an option for Invoice Emails.   This option allows the definition of all kinds of email templates – initial invoice cover email, thank you (for payment) email, and of course late payment chasing emails.

When I initially started using FreeAgent, I just set up a single email reminder template which sent a chase email 3 days after the invoice was due, and then sent the same email every 3 days until payment was made.   This worked for a while, but if you got the same email over and over, would it persuade you to make payment?  So I made it more sophisticated and gained better results.

Using the template emails defined in my late payers rules, I set up 9 different late payment rules – 2 emails for each stage (in case the first one was missed).  For each stage of the chase process, I created a new chase email, and set the Reminder Rules for the days after payment is due to send the email.    I have found that sending an email every 3 or 4 days seems to work best.

For each stage, the subject of the email changes to reflect what is about to happen – a warning, about to raise charges, on stop, debt recovery etc.  The text of the email also changes as per my late payers email templates already discussed.

Note quite automatic
Now whilst this does all the late payment chasing for me, its note quite fully automatic.   I do have to raise late payment invoices (with charges and interest) now and again – and even if FreeAgent was able to do this, I would still prefer to do this by hand (using the FreeAgent invoice creation screen) just to remain in control.

To allow me to keep track of what I need to do next (raise a late payment charge, put them on stop or pass them to a debt recovery company), the 2nd email of each stage in the sequence is marked to be copied back to me.   That way, when the email arrives in my in tray, it acts as a trigger and reminder for my next action.

My sequence and dates of my chase emails in FreeAgent are then as follows:

Whenever I come to the end of a freelance job or contract role, there are two things I do.   The first is to create a summary report of work performed and suggested next actions (which can really help to land more work with the same customer).  The second thing I do is to ask by email, three simple questions.

I prefer to ask the questions of the most senior person involved on the project by email.  Being able to answer by email means they have time to think about the answers , and also means you will get more honest answers than having to tell you to your face.

The answers to the first two questions help shape my working practices and style for future work.  The last one is there to scope out any more work with other companies.

The three questions I always ask (and the email I send out) are as follows:

Jo,

Having completed the {title here} project, there is one final task I would ask of you.   When you have a few moments spare, would it be possible for you to provide me some feedback by answering the following three questions – if there are more than one answer for any question, feel free to list them out.  I really appreciate any feedback you can provide.   The answer to question three is of course optional.

Many thanks in advance.

Regards

Me.

Q1: What did I do that particularly impressed you (so I can do them again for future clients)

A1:

Q2: What did I do that didn’t impress you (so I can avoid this in the future)

A2:

Q3: Do you know of anybody else who you think could also use my services?  If so, would you be happy to introduce us?

A3:

When you first send such an email, it will feel like the hardest thing you have ever done (the hardest part is actually pressing that SEND button), but I can promise that the majority of recipients will provide some form of answer that will provide you with valuable information.

So when you complete your next project or contract, take a deep breath, copy and paste, and now…. SEND.

Late payers can kill your company.   There is nothing worse than having completed work, and having to nag, chase and threaten a client in order for them to pay their bills.  Whilst they sit back withholding your money, your own bank balance reduces and panic can set in.

There is lots of advice available on the web about what to do about late payers for Freelancers, Contractors and Small Business.  I myself have talked before about various ways of dealing with late payers.   But a lot of this advice is not being honest about the real world, and how business really happens.   So let’s all put aside the make believe situations, and talk about what you can REALLY do about late payers.

Do you still want them as a customer?

Everything boils down to this question.   Once they pay that outstanding bill, do you still want them as a customer for future work?   If the answer is No, then all the options are open to you because the relationship is already damaged, so it’s hard to make it any worse.  Once you have decided the relationship is over – you are free to send nasty emails, make nasty calls, and even turn it over to legal professionals to send them threatening letters.

BUT, if you intend to keep them as a customer, and there is a real chance of more work, and you don’t want to ruin the relationship, then in a REAL world, your hands are somewhat tied.

This decision even extends to the pre-emptive measures that are advised.   Tighter payment terms, full payment up front, payment on delivery – all of these options sound great – right up to the moment you are in the sales negotiation.    When you are struggling to land a new customer and a prospect is willing to award you the work but only if you agree to their standard 100 day payment terms – are you really going to say no?  Really?

What you can Really Do

So that’s assume we work in a real world full of recession, tightening of belts and late paying customers.   What are some of the options that you can do if you don’t want to kill the relationship and the prospect of any future work?

Late Payment Fees – This is my method of dealing with late payers.   When somebody is late, I give them a sting through an invoice for an ‘administration’ fee.  I make a small bit of money out of it, and they get nudged into paying the original bill.  If push comes to shove, you can always cancel the late payment charge to keep the relationship sweet for future work.
Money Up Front – A lot of customers will reject this idea – but it comes down to negotiation.  Where a customer is always late, you could threaten to start raising Pro-forma invoices which would need to be settled before work is started.  Full payment up front is one extreme of the payment cycle, with late payment after the deliver as the other.  So you have a wide width for negotiation for future work with an agreed percentage (10%, 30%, 50% or 75%) up front and the rest after delivery.
Put them on STOP – If they want additional work, you can put them on stop – which means that you are not allowed to do any more work for them until they pay.   I have a mean person appointed in my company (a person picked at random) who I can blame for the decision.  Putting them on stop and not being allowed to provide support or that new development is never my decision – no, I was instructed to stop work by Jo Blogs (who is not available and won’t discuss the situation whilst money is outstanding) – sorry.
Extended Payment Terms – The bigger the customer, the more power they will use against you.  I have one multinational client which sent all suppliers (including myself) a letter 3 years ago which said they were rejecting all supplier terms and replacing them with their own 90 day terms.  I had the choice to take it or leave it.  Guess what…. They provided me a fair chunk of work – so I took it.   In my situation, there was no room for negotiation, but in a real world, payment terms could be reduced for late payers through negotiation.
Check your customer history – For new customers, don’t forget you can do credit checks.  At the very least, it is worth Googling “Their Co Name Late Payment” or “Their Co Name Accounts” or “Their Co Name supplier problems” to see if anybody else is talking about them being a problem payer.   If an existing customer suddenly starts making slow payments, it is worth doing this for your existing relationships to see if anything has changed.
Protecting Yourself with a contract – When push comes to shove, you can only threaten your customer with what is in your contract.  So make sure your payment terms, late fees, the right to alter the terms and ownership rights are clearly detailed.
Resign to chasing forever – But at the end of the day, if they are an existing customer and you want the future work, you may not have any other option than to resign yourself that they have the final decision on when they will pay you, and that you just have to keep chasing without turning nasty in order to keep the relationship sweet.