20 years of dedicated service in the army, Duncan MacLean embarked on an unexpected journey into entrepreneurship by pursuing his MBA. His thesis, which, originally centred around a hypothetical candle-making business, took a surprising turn, evolving into a thriving enterprise with over 75 employees, an international reach, and a sprawling 100,000 square feet at West Carrons Works in Falkirk. Talk about an overachiever!

Together with his wife, Cheryl, they made the slightly mad, slightly brilliant decision to relocate to Scotland, leave their jobs, and fully commit to Candle Shack. And so, over a cup of coffee at a service station, Candle Shack was born.

What started as a concept in Duncan’s mind, has evolved from a garage operation to a fully-fledged warehouse and office space. The pair are now dedicated to helping the next generation of candle makers succeed, providing them with the equipment and support they need to thrive.

Now, I could make a joke or two about asking my burning questions (get it), but I’ll spare you.Hear from Duncan himself, CEO and co-founder of Candle Shack as we hear his journey from a structured military career to navigating entrepreneurship.

Whether you are a business, budding entrepreneur or simply curious about the world of candle making, this Q&A offers valuable insights and inspiration for anyone ready to take the leap.

 

Can you give me a brief overview of what Candle Shack is and what products and services you offer?

 

Candle shack primarily supplies candle making componentry, training, and advice to new and growing home fragrance companies.

 

Can you tell me the story behind starting the business with your wife Cheryl in 2010? What inspired you both to embark on this journey?

 

My wife Cheryl ran a beauty salon while I was working in the army. I served for 20 years and I was getting close to leaving the army, so I decided to do an MBA. During the thesis, for the final year project, well, Candle Shack was that project. We were using craft markets and such to test the thesis, with no plans of ever launching the business.

Then during the process of interviewing for new jobs, I decided to move back to Scotland and start the business.

So, over coffee at the M4 service station, Candle Shack was born.

In hindsight, it was madness.

 

 

Reflecting on your transition from a structured military career to entrepreneurship, what were the biggest challenges you faced in those early days, and how did you overcome them?

 

Being comfortable with the lack of structure. The military is a very structured career, but your life is not particularly structured, you get moved every year or two and you don’t know where you’re going. Quite often you’d be told “in two weeks, you’re going here for nine months”. So, we were very comfortable with uncertainty.

But the military is very structured, and you are generally not asked to do something you don’t have the competency to do. Whereas when you run a business, at the beginning, you’ve got to do finance, marketing, supply chain, buying, none of which we had any experience of doing. So, that was probably the worst bit of coming from the military, moving away from an environment of competent people doing all the jobs, to lots of people ‘having a go’, and feeling like you were winging it all the time.

 

How have your experiences in the military shaped your leadership style at Candle Shack, and what unique perspectives do you bring to managing and growing your business as a result?

 

The military uses a command philosophy called mission command, with the idea being that you tell someone what needs to be achieved, but then let them figure out how best to do it.

That’s a great philosophy if everyone knows what they’re doing and is highly trained!

In the early days running the business, I tended to over delegate a bit. We had very junior people, and I would give them things to do without really understanding if it was a reasonable request.

There was always this willingness to train people, delegate to them, but the business was growing so fast, that quite often we had very inexperienced people (including myself) with so much autonomy.

 

 

Company Culture is evidently a crucial consideration for you when managing your business. Why is this a priority and what do to ensure a positive culture in the company?

 

You get a company culture whether you want one or not. You can’t always get it right, but you should do what you can to try and shape it. We all do our best work when we feel like we are doing something important, and we are valued.

That’s a real challenge, in a company that’s changing as fast as this one is, with people arriving and leaving all the time, it’s hard to figure out.

At our ‘pay day pizza’, we try to remind everyone about where the company is trying to get to long term, and how the work we do today impacts that, while also being very transparent about how the business is doing.

It can’t just be influenced by me, that’s a key thing to say. Having a bad culture will kill your business faster than having a bad strategy.

 

As someone who took a risk by leaving a stable career to start a business, what advice would you give to others who are contemplating a similar leap into entrepreneurship?

 

Scaling a business is brutal.

When you start a business there are always going to be bad days and you’re going to want to quit. You need to make sure everything else in your life is in order, because it’s likely that anything else that is in the way will be a reason for you to quit.

So- no distractions! If you are going to start a business, you are going to have to be able to commit almost 110% to that business every day.

My second piece of advice is – just go and do it! Most people never try because of imposter syndrome. Everyone looks at someone who runs a business and thinks they have some secret sauce – I just think they had a go.

If you work hard, and you take time to think, anyone can create a business that will be successful.

 

 

 

Candle Shack, often spotlights customers with smaller candle brands, why is supporting smaller brands important to you?

 

Well, we were one.

Candle Shack started at markets. I always feel that these smaller businesses, whether it be chocolates, gin, candles, soaps, these handcrafted products are fantastic. If you go to a Christmas market and you pick up a product, flip it upside down and it has a made in China sticker on the bottom. There’s something really disappointing about that.

At the same time, when we started a small business, your typical handmade candle looked like a coffee jar with a seashell glued on the outside and that’s because that’s all we could get our hands on.

That’s what we’ve tried to change in the market. We want to ensure that people who want to craft products, can create something beautiful, that wouldn’t be out of place on a shelf at say – John Lewis!

Our difficulty in the early years really motivated us. Being unable to make products we were proud of was hard. Everything looked the same. It looked like it was made in a shed (because it was). Whereas, if you look at the products our customers make these days, they look fantastic!

I think the small craft businesses across the UK are the unsung heroes. Their ability to provide lovingly made products with a bit of heart and soul. More people should buy locally made products.

 

Candle Shack is keen on sharing knowledge through blog posts, social media, and courses. Why is this a priority for you? As a successful business, you could keep your “candle secrets” to yourself—so why choose to share them?

 

When we reflect on why it was so difficult for us to create a brand, we realised there was probably two hurdles that everyone needs to overcome.

One of them is imposter syndrome. Not feeling good enough to run a brand, feeling like no one will buy your story or your products.

The other hurdle is technical safety. One of the bigger fears of a new candle producer is that dreaded knock on the door from a trading standards officer, saying ‘prove to me your product is safe’, or ‘someone has been injured using your product’.  We wanted to remove that fear for people, so they could confidently launch a business.

A lot of the time these small businesses never make it because of the fear of making an unsafe product.  So, we spent countless hours in our laboratory, formulating safe recipes for candles. It means on day one, when a person wants to make a product, they can do so safely.

 

What are you most proud of about Candle Shack and its journey so far?

 

(Externally) Helping small businesses to launch and succeed!

It’s so nice to hear back from customers, whether they have got their candles into Liberty, or they are doing their first craft market at the Royal Highland Show. That’s really rewarding because a lot of these people are maybe running this as a side hustle, a second income, but for some, it’s allowed them to leave a job they were really unhappy in and create a business that fits their lifestyle.

(Internally) Seeing people grow within the business. Some of staff here joined us as teenagers and have been promoted or maybe moved on. We always say we want people to leave the company better than when they arrived.

 

 

 

Tell me about your favourite or ‘go to’ Candle Shack product!

 

The wick press!

When we used to make candles, we would use a biro pen outer to insert candle wicks. You would have to do it one at a time and it is very, very slow. The alternative option was a £100,000 automatic machine. There was nothing in between.

We replaced a £100,000 solution with a £20 solution. Which helps small producers, speed up their workflow production.

It’s a product that costs very little, but it solves one of the biggest pains of candle making when you start to scale up a business.

 

When did you join Forth Valley Chamber of Commerce and why did you join?

 

We joined the Chamber when we were quite young as a business. I think 2 or 3 years into business, so about 10 years ago now.

Initially, we joined the Chamber because we started to export and we had no idea how to comply with export paper work. So, the Chamber was fantastic in helping us with figuring out that type of paper work

 

In what ways have you utilised your membership at the Chamber (have you attended events, made valuable connections, used the QUEST services, etc)

 

We used a mentoring service. We got a business mentor through the Chamber which was really, our first experience of bringing someone outside into the business. It was great to have a kind of sounding board in the early stages of the business.

I think that was excellent- the mentor matching programme.

We also use the HR and Legal lines provided by QUEST Services alongside Westfield Health.

Once the company got bigger, the Westfield Health plan became really useful. A lot of our staff use it for glasses, or physio. I know it’s popular with the team!

For more information about this wonderful business check out their website here.