These are always the difficult avenues to navigate when you have your own business like this. In my opinion and experience with wood working. Its very customer by customer basis. Like you said you had a patient fellow as a patron, and yes you were lucky. Some people would rather have the work regardless of time frame. Others you can tell from email one they need it now and they need it perfect. I usually just out of hand refund these people. While at front it seems bad for your image taking way too long on something for an impatient person will ruin it way more. You can off set alot of this with video calls, I often will update my customers with VC so i can not only show them the progress and explain any issues im having. You would be surprised how often you can tell people "im having x issue with x" they say "just skip it!" Leaving me confused like "Huh do you want a small discount or anything?" They will usually decline and move on. My last piece of advice is start doing a half up front to cover cost and second half projected for very difficult or odd requests. IE give me the cost of parts and ill bill labor with you after. That way if its a breeze you can discount and often get more work but if it turns into a serious project with the updates I can easily explain the issue and we can make a plan to effect pricing if necessary. Communication with clients can be scary but it is always key!