when ever i have trusted some one it usually ends up costing me money, go with your gut geeling, if someone cant afford to pay for a small job, how can they pay for a big job
have a limit on what can be left outstanding, and once this limit is met, dont do any work till it is cleared, tell big custy at start and put in contract etc a lot of big business want to pay every 3 months and a lot of small business cant afford to do it, that is one of the reason small companys dont get big think of all the wc woollies still owe money too