Top 5 Small-Business Hacks from the DIY Makers: What Toy Sellers Can Learn from Liber & Co.

Start small. Test fast. Scale smart: What toy sellers can learn from Liber & Co.

Pain point: You have a brilliant handmade toy or a collector's item, but you don’t know how to move it off the workbench into wholesale orders without breaking quality, safety compliance, or your bank account. You're juggling safety tests, packaging, pricing, and retail partnerships — and everything feels risky.

That’s exactly the problem the founders of Liber & Co. faced with cocktail syrups — and solved by leaning into a DIY, learn-by-doing approach that moved them from a single staging pot to 1,500-gallon tanks and global buyers. In 2026, toy makers can borrow the same playbook: start small, iterate quickly, and build systems that keep the handmade spirit while meeting retail demands.

"We started with a single pot on a stove… if something needed to be done, we learned to do it ourselves." — Liber & Co. co-founder (Practical Ecommerce interview)

Why this matters in 2026

The retail landscape in 2026 rewards rapid-product-market fit, ethical sourcing, and scalable operations. D2C growth is still strong, AI tools speed product testing and market research, and collectors crave authenticity — but retailers and consumers demand professional packaging, safety compliance, and predictable supply. Small toy businesses that bridge the gap between

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