Hitting it big in Vegas

Shonda Decker is hitting it big in Vegas.

The former Iolan was recently featured on the cover of MyVegas magazine in connection with her company, Affordable Striping & Sealing.

“We do parking lot striping, road marking and traffic signs,” the 49-year-old Decker said. “We do existing properties, parking garages and a lot of work at the casinos.”

The company was recently spotlighted for its work on the parking lot of Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders.

However, Decker said  their biggest job “was at an Amazon warehouse that was huge.”

Decker was featured in MyVegas magazine for being a top female business owner, and for her positive influence on the community.

“I’ve been in business 14 years,” she said, and does charity work along with belonging to various associations. 

Decker, moreover, credits having grown up in Iola for her success in building said networks.

“Las Vegas is still a small town to do business in,” she said. “Relationships matter.” Likewise, “when you grow up in Iola, Kansas, relationships also matter.”

Learning to value people and community early on were key to her success.

As for how Decker got to this point, let’s turn the clock back 31 years.

“The day after I graduated from high school, I moved to Las Vegas,” she said. “I wanted to live in a city after growing up in a small town.”

Decker was also influenced by her mother, Sandy, who relocated there first, after having operated the “Just About Anything” thrift store in Iola.

“It was a great place to grow up,” she said, though added that she’s rarely able to return home these days beyond an occasional class reunion.

“I’m so glad that’s where I’m from, though … I was very blessed.”

After living in Vegas for around a decade, Decker got her first taste of the infrastructure industry, but didn’t have a great experience.

However, when she later had the chance to start her own company, she jumped at the opportunity.

Decker recalled: “I had this random investor who said, [matter-of-factly,] ‘I’ll give you money.’”

“I met him at a Starbucks,” she said. “We shook hands, and never even had a formal agreement. … That was 14 years ago.”

As for being recognized as a female business owner, Decker recalled that when she first got involved in the industry, “they called me the striping chick.”

(She also noted how, especially in Vegas, the correct number of “p”s in the word “striping” is very important.)

However, despite being given some static by male colleagues, “being a woman, it was always a benefit,” she said. “It’s never held me back.”

In fact, Decker averred, “as a woman, when people realize you know what you’re talking about, that you’re going to take care of them, I think people respect me more.”

Regarding why she’s specifically drawn to work of this kind, Decker said, “I like the challenges of doing something and succeeding,” especially projects that aren’t straight-forward and involve logistical difficulties.

She also said that, simply, “people matter to me,” and her particular field requires a significant amount of social interaction.

Decker has likewise inherited a penchant for business from her family, with four of her siblings also running their own operations.

“It’s almost born into us,” she said. “I do love what I do.”

As for what the future holds, Decker wasn’t sure, but waxed philosophical a bit.

“How do I do life better?” she asked. “How can I improve all aspects of my life?”

She also noted how, at this stage, “it’s not so much now about paying the bills, but about what really drives me personally.”

“I will do this forever,” Decker wagered, but added that “my dream is that one day one of my kids takes it over. That would be my exit plan.”

Those potential future owners, aka members of “the girl squad,” as she lovingly called them, include daughters Kaysen, 11, Hayden, 12, and Dalyn, 24 (along with son-in-law Shine, 26).