Lauren Kaminsky, better known as By Gold Girl, is a twenty-something entrepreneur living in NYC who has a love for all things GOLD. Not only are we both contributers to LoveGold‘s website as the blogging gurus, but we both stand five foot something (depending on how tall our heels are) with loads of jewels on! I got to meet Lauren in Vegas when we covered the Couture Show, where we talked about the ways she’s been revolutionizing her father’s pawn business, EZ Pawn Corp and how jewelry obsessed we are. Lauren has been saving items from being melted one jewel at a time, and curating items for resale in a whole new way! I caught up with the busy business girl to ask her a few questions!
I remember coming in to my Dad’s store, EZ Pawn Corp, with my mom on the weekends to pick out jewelry for her to wear. We would sift through the vintage pieces, very similar to what I do now, except she would pick out the most unique items that I always thought were so ugly! Now today I see the pieces on her and I love them, I guess vintage was an acquired taste I developed! She also had a knack at finding the most beautiful pieces and taught me about all the big name jewelry houses- Cartier, Tiffany & Co, & Van Cleef, to name a few – I definitely get my jewelry style from her!
I always was interested in the business but was never fully sold on it being my career. Looking back, that may have been because I never fully appreciated or realized its maximum business potential until I was in college. I was studying Business Management at Boston University and I started working for my dad as a summer job going into my senior year. Gold was on the rise, and our business was growing, & my dad needed my help.
While I took pride in providing a financial service and making collateral loans to customers, it was that summer I remember falling in love with an overlooked portion of the business- the jewelry-sales side of it. My dad was very busy managing the pawn sector of the company that as a result, the vintage jewelry he got in was usually melted or sold to wholesalers. Now, I oversee an entire department dedicated to making sure nothing slips by without me seeing it first.
There is no such thing as a typical workday for me! As an entrepreneur in NYC, running a 12-store company, and a retail store at downtown hot-spot Beauty & Essex my days can take me anywhere. However, most of the time I am at one of my branch stores overseeing the operations. Each week there is always something new going on- this week it’s our 12th store opening!
I love being able to have flexibility and make decisions on how to run my family business. Of course, my dad always has final say, but lately he’s been really nice about testing out my ideas. I also really love saying that I’m a pawnbroker, just to get some good reactions out of people! Like any job, there are its downsides. Some days are a lot harder than others and I have to make business decisions that business school could have never prepared me for, but like anything else in life- I learn from my mistakes and move on.
That’s the hardest question! Currently I love my 18kt gold stardust necklace, it has a wavy disk filled with pave diamonds. It is great for summer and when the sun hits the disk it sparkles and shines better than any other piece I have.
