From Spare Bedroom to Storefront: The Story of Muir & Me
What does it take to turn a passion project into a thriving retail business in just one year? For Mark, co-founder and director of Muir and Me, the answer is equal parts determination, grit, and a whole lot of wax. We sat down with him at their beautiful new Glasgow studio to catch up on their incredible first year in business.
Hello, I am Mark, co-founder and director of Muir & Me. We started our business back in August of 2024 and soon moved into our gorgeous studio here in Glasgow.
So when we last saw you in December 2024 you said your 2025 goal was to open a store and you have achieved that. Can you talk us through the process and where you are now?
Sure, so as you say, when we launched in August of 2024, we did so from our spare bedroom. It was quite a whirlwind at first, there was a lot of pre-prep and planning before we did launch the business. Christmas came fast enough and then we wanted to, within that first year, grow and move into our very own store here.
From January 2025, we realised that we needed more space than just a spare bedroom, which is why we started looking for just a smaller unit to expand into. Lucky enough, we found something in April of 2025 that has our lovely storefront here in Glasgow, as well as a large space for us to really up our production and have a dedicated TikTok studio as well to do our live streaming from.
So where do you usually trade, store or online?
Yes, so we trade mainly online. As I say, our biggest source just now is TikTok. We do convert those customers through to our own website, along with a few other channels as well. Lucky enough, we do have the storefront here, so we do get a lot of passing trade that come in and smell the products and experience it. But yeah, that's sort of how we market at the moment.
What's your bestseller?
Our best seller at the moment in terms of our product is our Aroma Melts. That is probably our unique selling point to be honest. It's our hero product. It's something slightly different, it's not your usual clamshell or snap bar. It's a lovely, gorgeous product in our packaging, something that's really, really been considered. And again, we are doing that in our plant-based wax as well, so it's very, very sustainable and people love the quality of the product. In terms of our fragrances, I would probably say cashmere and oud is a very, very popular one, people love a good oud. So those are our two most popular products at the minute.
How have things changed from last year to now?
When we launched in August 2024, Christmas came around fast and we only put out a few products. Moving into 2025, the year flew by. We expanded into this store and, as with any young business, we've put everything back in rather than taking a wage. One of our biggest challenges has been keeping stock levels high. It's a good problem to have, but customers who can't find what they're looking for will go elsewhere. Christmas 2025 caught me off guard too, and I should have started planning as early as June or July. Luckily Candle Shack helped us through it. It's something we're learning year on year, but overall our growth has been phenomenal and our community has been right there with us.
How can Candle Shack continue to support you?
By offering and providing really high quality products and oils as they have throughout the course of the life of our business. It's really important to us that our customers enjoy a quality product and that's why we solely use Candleshack oils. We know what we're getting, we know the performance is there, we know there's been time and care in crafting those fragrances. Along with our waxes as well, the soy wax that we use for our candles, and as I mentioned the plant-based wax that we use for our aroma melts, it's incredibly high performance and a great product. We just hope that Candleshack will be there for the longevity of our business as well to help us along the way.
What's been the biggest surprise since opening the store?
It's been our customers' response to being in store and being able to smell our lovely products. All of the different fragrances that we offer, it's just great to see their faces and see that nostalgic memory triggered when they smell a certain fragrance. Whereas you don't get that online, people will be buying blind almost for the first time with scents, so they're just going with a knowledge of what it may smell like. But coming into store, scent marketing is incredibly important, so we will always have fragrances burning in the front of the store to draw people in, and it works, it really does. People love coming into store. We do our candle making classes here in this space as well, along with a few other events. We had a huge first birthday party in here to celebrate the business and it's just a great space, great for customers, great for suppliers to come in as well and experience everything that we have to offer.
What would you say to someone thinking about opening their own store?
For someone that's looking to open their own store, I would say that you need determination and grit over everything else. You need to focus in on your numbers before you make any harsh decisions emotionally. Because it's a lot of work — I'm still not taking a wage from this business, it's still in its early stages. Everything goes back into the business to help it grow and learn and evolve. So what I would say, if anyone is looking to start or looking to move into a retail space, just make sure you know your numbers, your margins, everything about it — and that you've got a unique selling point as well, because that will help.
What's one product you're especially proud of?
The hero product that we started the business with. It's an incredibly versatile product. We sell 120 grams of wax in one packet. This will last a customer over 100 hours of fragrance burn time, which they love. And for the price point it's very, very affordable, but we pride ourselves on being a luxury product — so it's accessible to everyone. And again, we do that across a range of different fragrances, I think around 16 to 20 fragrances depending on seasonal ones, so there is choice there for everyone, which is really great.
So we asked you your goal in 2024, you hit that goal in 2025. What's your goal for 2026?
2026 is more about sustainably growing and making sure the foundations are strengthened for our business. We had rapid growth within the first year and moved into this lovely space that we're in just now, but more it's about building the foundations and a solid base for the growth to continue — building our customer retention up and bringing out new fragrances and different products for people to try as well.
