Getting your product delivered efficiently and accurately to your customers and markets is critical to your business success.

At the next Inventors and Entrepreneurs (I&E) Club meeting Tony Saarem, Operations Manager at GoMacro in Viola, will focus on shipping and logistics including parcel shipments, negotiating rates with carriers (UPS, FedEx, USPS), issues related to palletized freight (LTL, FTL, international, etc) and how to achieve the best pallet rates through 3PL (3rd Party Logistics) brokers, and direct contracts with carriers.

He will also discuss other considerations such as how to protect yourself from erroneous damage and short-ship claims, different issues delivering to warehouses and retailers, methods to monitor your packages after they’ve been shipped, and syncing your shipping and tracking information to financial softwares (such as QuickBooks, Sage, etc.) so they’re tied to invoices.

To get your product delivered safely,  learn about packing materials, how to source the best corrugated boxes for a particular application, and how to build a secure pallet and  protect your product from damages in transit.  Bring your questions.

The meeting will be held on Aug. 12 at the Food Enterprise Center, 1201 North Main St., Viroqua. Networking starts at 5:30 p.m., the program begins at 6 p.m.

The meetings are free and no reservations are required. Whether you have an idea or just like to think business, join in for a dynamic evening of networking with lots of creative people. The public is welcome.

The I&E club is organized jointly by the Crawford County Economic Development Corporation, Vernon Economic Development Association and Viroqua Chamber Main Street.

For more information, contact David Connolly at dcnnlly@gmail.com or 326-0234, Sue Noble at snoble@veda-wi.org or 638-8332, or Nora Roughen-Schmidt at vcmsprograms@gmail.com or 637-2575.