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Mariel grew up in the jewelry industry. Both of her parents were jewelers. Her dad had 7 boutique jewelry stores and sold wholesale throughout the Caribbean, to SeaWorld and Disney World. For the first 14 years of her life, his private workshop was in their home, and the main workshop and casting facility was in their backyard. He then consolidated to two galleries with workshops and focused on custom one-of-a-kinds and Flawless Diamonds. Jewelry has always been life.
Mariel recalls the early childhood duties for the business such as attaching bails to pendants for the Wholesale Nautical line, sorting checks for her grandmother in the office, and running boxes to the post office. It was a family effort her father started in 1974. Her grandmother joined in the 80’s after retiring from the head of Accounts Receivable at a hospital. Mariel learned and loved both sides of the business, the art and the organization.
In 1999, Mariel studied Diamond and Colored Stone Grading at the Gemological Institute of America – Carlsbad, CA campus. She returned home to her father’s store to continue work on the sales floor and specialized in custom design. She was intimately woven through many facets of the business as the Staff Gemologist, helper to her Grandmother, and editor for her father’s advertisements and lectures. She moved her dad’s business from ledgers to QuickBooks desktop.
In 2001, Mariel got the treat of a lifetime and got to work for Hans Ulrich Pauly at the Tucson Gem Show in the Idar-Oberstein group, and returned to Idar-Oberstein, Germany with the Pauly’s. She studied gemstone carving in the Pauly workshop in a 1 year Practical before returning to the family jewelry store.
Mariel rounded out her jewelry training at the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in San Francisco, CA and became a Graduate Bench Jeweler. She is a JA Certified Bench Jeweler Technician and worked under independent jewelry designers in a continuous and never-ending effort to improve her techniques.
All the while, she was obsessed with the business side of things and would organize offices, manage books, and create tracking spreadsheets for show expenses. She worked as an accounting assistant. When the economy crashed in 2008, she wrote a paper titled “Accounting for Jewelers” as part of her application into the Accounting Program at Belmont University.
The idea marinated as she worked in corporate accounting. In 2013, she started outreach to test interest in the idea. In 2014, she found Xero at the recommendation of a CPA friend, fell in love with it and started training other jewelers to use it themselves, until they finally said, “Can you just do it for me?” That’s when Accounting for Jewelers was truly born.
Accounting for Jewelers is dedicated to preventing the constant financial stress she experienced with her father, and the credit card shuffle she witnessed her grandmother orchestrate in order to make payroll and fund inventory purchases.
Mariel’s goal in life is to make a massive impact on the quality of life of jewelry business owners.
As the firm’s Managing Director, she:
Over the years, I’ve been able to define my parent’s formula like this: create the WOW factor for the sentimental moments in one’s life in the most intimate form of art, jewelry, that can be worn, handed down and withstand generations. -Mariel Diaz
Believing in these standards and being a jeweler herself, she has worked extensively with hundreds of jewelers throughout the United States to create operational efficiencies and make data-driven decisions.
Accounting for Jewelers exists to help jewelry businesses get paid for their creative designs and quality craftsmanship by having reliable information to confidently and efficiently make informed decisions to grow and improve.
Phone : 615-601-2034
Email : support@accountingforjewelers.com