When Communities Unlimited (CU) first shared the story of Klassey Accessories in 2024, owner Mary Esclovon was celebrating rapid growth and gaining financial clarity with help from CU’s Entrepreneurship Team.

Since then, the Beaumont, Texas–based jewelry business has continued evolving — expanding how it sells while strengthening its financial foundation.

“We just celebrated two years in business,” Esclovon said. “I was mostly selling from home through e-commerce a few years ago. Now I’m still doing that, but I also consign with a brick-and-mortar store, so customers can shop in person.”

The move into a physical retail space marked another step forward for the business. But like many entrepreneurs, Mary also had to adapt to shifting market conditions in 2025, including higher product costs tied to global tariffs.

“When people started talking about tariffs in 2025, especially on China, I was nervous,” Esclovon said. “I primarily source from China.”

Tariffs quickly drove up the cost of her inventory. Rather than pause her sales, Mary pivoted quickly — finding alternative suppliers in the United States and even traveling to Houston to purchase wholesale inventory in person while searching for affordable options.

“For about four months, we were just trying to survive and find affordable product,” she said. “So we were walking a tightrope — finding product cheap enough so we didn’t scare our customers away.”

As pricing stabilized, Mary was eventually able to return to working with her original overseas suppliers, restoring part of the sourcing strategy that helped build her business in the first place.

Despite the challenging year, the experience ultimately strengthened Mary’s approach to running the business. One of her biggest recent wins has been gaining deeper clarity on her numbers and improving margins — work she has continued developing alongside CU Management Consultant Trent Thomason. CU’s work in East Texas is made possible through the ongoing support of the T.L.L. Temple Foundation.

The clearer financial picture has helped Mary refocus on the strategy that plays to her biggest strength: selling jewelry live on Facebook.

That advice helped reinforce Mary’s plan to double down on live selling in 2026 — an approach that allows her to connect directly with customers and quickly gauge which products resonate.

Another milestone came when Mary qualified for CU’s Wealth Builder grant, which she used to invest in her future.

“I don’t have an actual nine-to-five with retirement benefits,” she said. “Learning how to open and invest in a retirement account was a whole new skill set.”

Looking back, Mary says the challenges of the past year reinforced the importance of collaboration and surrounding herself with strong people.

“It taught me that I’m not the smartest person in the room — and that’s okay,” she said. “Between Trent, my social media manager, and other businesswomen around me, I have brilliant people I can lean on. Collaboration gets me further.”

And Mary says the business support she’s received along the way has played a major role.