Story
Jason Swenk delivered a big project and never saw a cent
Early in his agency days, Jason Swenk and his team poured time and money into a large project for a client. They did the work, delivered it, and then the payment never came.
The lesson stuck with him, and he's repeated it in interviews ever since: get a deposit before you start, not after you finish.
What went wrong
Doing the whole job before asking for any money means you're funding the client. If they don't pay, you've lost the work and the cost of doing it.
The habit that prevents it
Take a deposit up front, and bill in stages as the work moves along. Don't carry a client's project on your own cash.
How you'd see this coming in Punctual
Punctual makes it easy to bill a deposit and set staged, milestone payments, so work and payment move together instead of you footing the bill and hoping.
Source: Jason Swenk, interviewed on Inspired Insider.