Slow-paying clients are pretty much a universal constant of business. I have the good fortune to be billing a large bureaucracy with weekly payment cycle, so they do in fact pay within 30 days. All I had to do was spend 2 months on paperwork and a thousand bucks on insurance :)
For small businesses, putting off payments to suppliers can be the difference between making payroll and going bankrupt. You can hardly blame them.
I make a point to pay as soon as possible, on the theory that this will improve the service I'm getting from other professionals ("Let's do Jacques's file first, he always pays promptly and we need the cash").
That's a benefit of working with the government, too - the payments are predictable.
Also, the 60 to 90 day payments are typical for companies that like to keep things "lean" ... they want to generate revenue before they pay. Dell was known for this with their hardware purchasing - they would maintain a negative cash conversion cycle because they could sell a computer before its components were even paid for.
For small businesses, putting off payments to suppliers can be the difference between making payroll and going bankrupt. You can hardly blame them.
I make a point to pay as soon as possible, on the theory that this will improve the service I'm getting from other professionals ("Let's do Jacques's file first, he always pays promptly and we need the cash").