Contracting accounting services problems

Throw way for obvious reasons.

I’ve been contracting full-time for a small boutique firm for the past year. While the business operates at a low volume, the work involves high-value invoices. Unfortunately, I’ve experienced ongoing issues with delayed payments.

Between December and April, I received no payment at all, and only after raising serious concerns and stopped working in April was approximately 50% of those outstanding invoices paid.

In May, I had to request further payments from that same period due to a personal emergency.

As of July, I’m still awaiting payment for work completed as far back as the first week of May.

Whenever I raise the issue, I’m met with explanations about cash flow challenges or pushback over minor administrative oversights, such as not filing a document correctly in the filing system. It’s becoming increasingly untenable. Despite my agreed hourly rate, the delayed payments are creating serious financial hardship, I’m effectively unable to support myself.

What the fuck should I do in this situation?

Fair work is out of the question as I operate through a business structure (I try to pay myself a salary and this business isn’t just consulting for the one business FYI- I have an ecommerce store).

Raising it aggressively leads to me being locked out of my emails (experienced in April, only for the business to realise they need me which lead to partial invoice payment).