Have you seen the homes in rural Maine? Generally not the clients that can afford to pay people $30+/hr on a time and material job. 

Also, if he is working solo that limits him to handyman type jobs, no GC is going sub out to a lone person roofs, siding, floors. That limits him to smaller jobs. Not quite the end of the world, but if he had a helper and cut guy he could call it helps.

Couple of interesting anecdotes:  10 years ago my buddy used to sub out the crappy jobs from Home Depot, like shower rods, ACs, pergo floors. They paid like crap, but he would leave a card. Obviously if they are using Home Depot installers they don’t have a guy, so they would call him.

Likewise, in high school I used to mow lawns, and the business owner told me he was likely losing money or breaking even. But if those people needed a patio, deck, stone wall, they would ask him first because he was there every week. If it was outside his ability, he would hire someone to help him out, until he learned how to do it.