Restarting a business halfway across the country

By Anna Mudd

The Golden State was a place of Golden Opportunity for nearly a decade–until I realized my heart needed deep summer rain, and my soul wanted the joys and stimulation of urban life.

Eleven years in the rugged hills of Northern California was enough. I had built a business and created a livelihood, but I felt like a fledgling, ready to leave the nest.
Twelve years ago I landed in Grass Valley, welcomed by my cousin who had a “spare room” – a trailer in his backyard – I could stay in while I figured out my next steps after college. I spent the next decade learning, exploring, growing, failing, getting up again, and deciding what was right for me and what wasn’t.

In the winter of 2020, I set my sights on painting. Or maybe, painting found me. I had been spending the darkest weeks of the year painting my apartment in all manner of colors and designs, feeding my soul after a long run of stressful work and letting go of a “dream” to become an electrician, among so many other career attempts.

But standing at the paint chip wall at the hardware store, it felt right. I could think of color and transformation all day, and all night too – I had so many dreams in those weeks of color and paint – and I took it as a sign from the universe to lean into the opportunity.

With all the variety of work in the realm of design and home transformation, I could see myself walking that path for 20 years, and 20 more after that. So I just started telling people, “You can hire me to paint your house” and I never looked back. 

After three years of growing the business and building relationships in my small community, I knew I needed a wider horizon, quite literally. Beautiful, wild, and charming as it is, the hills full of tall pines felt like a box to me, and I just ached to see a bigger slice of the sky. There are lifestyle changes I knew I wanted, that I knew I would never have if I stayed. I wanted to stretch my legs, and put before me a longer runway, on which I could showcase my talents to a wider audience.

The fear of staying the same was greater than the fear of change. 

Destination St. Louis

Sure, there are many dozens of places in the country where I could have moved, but St. Louis caught my attention in part because my dad’s family is tied to this area. His mother’s side were French immigrants to St. Louis (via the “West Indies” or Guadeloupe, as we call it today) in the early 1900s, and his father’s side were “dirt farmers” in a town called Silex, Missouri.

The Renards and the Mudds are still well-known names in St. Louis, and I am sometimes asked if I’m related to so-and-so Mudd, whom that client worked or went to college with. In fact, just the other day I met a fellow Mudd, and we talked over our shared genealogy and local history. 

After learning about the PCA, and receiving a scholarship to attend EXPO 2024, my business really took off. I felt more confident in what I was doing. I was still in California at the time, a bit unsure about what was in my future, but committed to growing and improving the business.

That year was the first year I didn’t have any part-time jobs or side gigs, I fully lived off what the business created. My dad, a past entrepreneur and business owner himself, assured me that if I wanted to move, I could paint anywhere.

What I know about the paint market is that every building that has ever been built, and ever will be built, is likely to need some kind of paint application. St. Louis, Missouri, sure has a lot more buildings and development than Grass Valley, California.

My dad also wisely assured me that your expectations create your reality– if I expected to do well in moving and restarting the business, that was likely to happen (with persistence of course).

Once I decided on where to move, when to move became clear to me, and I made a plan.

Moving Day

We all know painting is rather seasonal, and personally I experience seasonal energy shifts too. Moving over the winter made the most sense. I would wrap up my fall season in California, spend the holidays with family in Colorado, and head out to Missouri in the new year, 2025. 

Realistically, everything went off without a hitch. I decided my leave-date, December 21, and worked backward from there–scheduling a trailer, giving notice to landlords, and going through the arduous tasks of deciding what to keep and what to leave behind. (I wish I hadn’t tried to be thrifty and keep all that “still good” primer and caulk, because towing it in a trailer across the Midwest in January meant it froze to a solid, spoiled block by the time we arrived.)

My parents’ support was invaluable. They drove out to California to help me pack up. Over two days, we caravaned to Colorado, with my truck pulling the U-Haul trailer, and my cat Beans sleeping on our laps for hours-long stretches.

The only real delay was in January, when a thousand-mile-long storm dumped snow and ice from the Rockies to the East Coast, and we had to wait at my brother’s house in Denver an extra day while Kansas roads were de-iced and cleared. Once we set out from Denver–heading east on Highway 34 to miss the Interstate semi-truck traffic–it was just a long, straight drive through postcard-perfect, snow-draped rangeland and farmscapes. 

Starting Again

How did I get business going again once I got settled in St. Louis? Effort, persistence, and showing up. Marketing dollars were few, but I had plenty of time and grit.

I had been talking to a lot of paint industry people about how to get running again, and what marketing strategies to use. Door-knocking, Meta ads, and networking groups were the top suggestions. My first booked job actually came from door-knocking, when a friendly fellow asked if I could help him pick a paint color. Of course I said “yes,” so we set a date for me to return with color chips and create an estimate.

Knocking on strangers’ doors in cold temperatures to ask if they needed anything painted made me want to expel the contents of my stomach, but once I got going, there was almost a steely trance I felt doing it. When I finished a long block or two (that’s about all I could handle, maybe an hour’s worth), I had developed a sense of accomplishment and resolve: at least I had done something to move the needle. 

It was after the 2025 EXPO when I started networking in earnest. I searched for Chambers of Commerce, BNI groups, Women’s Networking events, anything I thought might be a place to meet people and professionals for sharing who I am and what I have to offer. As it happens, one introduction led to another, and that led to two more.

Not all groups turned out to be a good fit for the long term, but a few were welcoming and enthusiastic from the start, and led to a good deal of work early on. I am still sometimes amazed at the trust granted to me after merely a conversation with someone. 

Building Community

St. Louis is certainly bigger than Grass Valley, but interconnected communities and the synchronicities I have found make it feel cozy.

Building community and making friends was something I gave consistent effort to, and not just for my business. It turns out that almost everyone needs a painter, and almost everyone wants to share their activity or group with you.

Through knocking doors, I was invited to visit a nearby Catholic Church, and I started attending the week before Easter. I met some nice folks, and I also noticed that a man in the choir was someone I had recently purchased a bike from off of Facebook Marketplace.

I reached out to him, and he invited me to join a weekly group ride. It seems to me that people in St. Louis are genuinely friendly, and when they invite you somewhere they mean it. I started cycling with this group on Monday evenings and immediately felt welcomed and encouraged to return, and I was also invited to other rides.

There are many regular group bike rides in St. Louis, including a weekly Friday night “social” ride that has become my home for getting outdoors, socializing, and exploring the weird and wonderful corners of the city with the most generous, interesting, and nicest people I have yet to meet here. 

New Business

Setting up the business in Missouri wasn’t too difficult, and far less costly than in California. Fifty bucks gets you an LLC in Missouri, compared to $800 in California!

The Missouri tax website leaves much to be desired, but eventually I got registered with the state and city. So far I have printed yard signs, and I am in the process of printing door hangers (an upgrade from the color flyers I made at the library–cheapest color printing in town!). 

Business in general is better than ever before. There are exponentially more opportunities here than in my prior home, and many of the industry marketing and networking techniques just work better in St. Louis.

There are neighborhoods with many dozens of houses on walkable streets, so a yard sign gets views. In California, if my client lives eight miles down a dirt road in the woods, and their only neighbor is a bear, who will see that sign?

I’ve had the opportunity to estimate painting a large church interior, and some commercial projects like an Einstein Bagels. Did I win these jobs? No. But I feel encouraged knowing the ceiling is much higher here. 

By the end of the year, I am expecting to generate at least the same revenue as last year (I’m still under $200k), and continue to grow through the winter and into the spring.

I’m quite proud of the work and growth I have accomplished this year, given the 2,000 mile lateral move. I hired an excellent full-time painter in August (shout out Taylor!).

My main goal is to keep her working, and free up my time to tend to the finer details and systems-building necessary for the scaling I want to achieve in the next 3-5 years.

Moving was the easy part, and this is where the real work begins! 

Moving Reflections

Looking back, I have learned many lessons–in pricing (make sure your materials pricing is accurate!), project management (track your hours!), sales (pitch your “sale” every time) – and I am still learning.

I have found that even the smallest efforts–printing 60 flyers and tucking them under doormats, or attending a Chamber of Commerce lunch when I’d rather crawl in a hole that day–has led to some of the biggest returns.

Each day, I have the chance to meet someone new, and I am time and again floored by the willingness of others to open doors for me. It is certainly not without challenge and effort, but opportunities are there if you look for them. 

If another painter is looking to relocate, I would ask, “What are your reasons for moving? Do you have business systems set up, like lead capture and management? SOPs?”

You are likely to need a few months of living expenses saved in case you can’t get positive cash flow right away in the new town. You’re going to need to market yourself when you absolutely don’t want to. Bring business cards with you everywhere. Word of mouth can happen fast, if you put yourself in places that need you. Keep showing up.

Early on, I met a lot of people who were so impressed that I landed here and got straight to work networking, marketing, selling, and forming relationships. “Wow, that’s incredible! You don’t know anybody in this town, yet you’re putting yourself out there!” And my reply is generally, “Well yeah, this is how I pay rent and buy food. What else am I supposed to do?” I could always just “get a job,” but I would rather put that time and effort into building my own dreams.

And now here I am, roughly nine months into this new dream of mine, and I feel more at home than ever before. I am comfortable in this town, yet challenged in the right ways, mostly by my ambitions to grow my business. I have a community of friends and a network of clients and business relationships that I know will only compound with time.

I am beginning to see how my work nurtures the dreams of those I serve. In early October, we painted this simple South City house a vivid, life-giving shade of green. Dave, the owner, is a gardener, and a glass artist, and wanted to fix up his house a bit (this was the first time he really had the capacity and resources to do so).

With this eye-catching color change, neighbors who have only ever waved hello are now coming over to visit, and passers-by on the bike trail are stopping to admire and have a conversation.

“It’s life-changing. It’s opening me up to the community,” Dave told me.

Hearing his story is opening me up to the ways each job can impact more than just my bottom line.

Perhaps much of my success so far is because I feel very connected to and invested in this community. I came to St. Louis knowing I would spend at least 20 years here, and likely many more. Long enough to settle in, and build the life I know I want for myself. And because of that vision, I think people I meet can sense the pride and affection I have for this town.

They welcome me into their homes, and trust me with their most personal transformations. I am happy to be along for the ride. 

Anna Mudd is the founder of Anna Mudd Painting, in St. Louis, Missouri. Learn more at annamuddpainting.com.