That sucks. I thought I was the only guy who had to have those kinds of experiences. :-)
In my case it was years ago, and since then my situation has improved dramatically. The things that seemed to help were:
1) Identifying the kinds of people I worked well with in the past and pitching those kinds of people on projects (I did some of this by learning the Meyers-Briggs function stack, which unfortunately doesn't have an axis of evil but is otherwise helpful in finding new clients who are somewhat similar to clients I liked in the past; ENFPs are a perennial favorite)
2) Identifying non-profits and other less rip-offy types of clients and showing them how I could help them
3) Saving enough money that I didn't have to work with any given client
4) Establishing firm policies like "You will pay 100% down if X and Y conditions are not met or do not apply, or if the total is below $N; otherwise 50% down and 50% prior to delivery"
5) Doing background-checking on all new clients, especially if they have fired one of my kind before (I usually call up the fired guy).
#4 really rides on your reputation, so you may wish to have references on hand to give to potential clients.
I'm celebrating my ninth year as a solo freelancer in rural California and things couldn't get much better, so I hope this helps you somehow.
In my case it was years ago, and since then my situation has improved dramatically. The things that seemed to help were:
1) Identifying the kinds of people I worked well with in the past and pitching those kinds of people on projects (I did some of this by learning the Meyers-Briggs function stack, which unfortunately doesn't have an axis of evil but is otherwise helpful in finding new clients who are somewhat similar to clients I liked in the past; ENFPs are a perennial favorite)
2) Identifying non-profits and other less rip-offy types of clients and showing them how I could help them
3) Saving enough money that I didn't have to work with any given client
4) Establishing firm policies like "You will pay 100% down if X and Y conditions are not met or do not apply, or if the total is below $N; otherwise 50% down and 50% prior to delivery"
5) Doing background-checking on all new clients, especially if they have fired one of my kind before (I usually call up the fired guy).
#4 really rides on your reputation, so you may wish to have references on hand to give to potential clients.
I'm celebrating my ninth year as a solo freelancer in rural California and things couldn't get much better, so I hope this helps you somehow.