The restaurant business is tough. Known for unpredictable revenue and narrow margins, the business of food requires a willingness to adapt and evolve beyond traditional dining services and typical dining hours (and delivery methods). In this podcast, we highlight advice from some of New York City’s top chefs on how to help any restaurant thrive in today’s competitive and crowded food culture, where convenience and flexibility reign supreme.

Let this sink in: The generation born between the mid-1990s and 2010x, known as Generation Z (the one after the millennials), is the largest in history. Gen Zers wield an estimated $44 billion a year in buying power, so learning the nuances of their preferences and expectations for retail is crucial to keep pace. The customer is still always right. This podcast outlines what you need to know about this major retail demographic.

Retailers of all sizes are prioritizing their mobile commerce efforts this year. Why? The data around adoption is hard to ignore. The National Retail Federation reports that sales on smartphones surged 65 percent year over year in 2016. A bad mobile experience for shoppers, however, is a big turn off. Mobile shopping is not the same as shopping on a website. There are some unique attributes to know. This podcast gives tips and techniques for ensuring your mobile shopping experience is truly designed and optimized for customers on the go.

The rise of ‘push button services’ such as Amazon’s Dash Button is a trend with opportunity. When Amazon launched its push button in 2015, many laughed it off as a gimmick. Two years later, over a hundred products and rising have their own branded Dash Button. Consumers wants convenience, especially for products they are loyal to and plan on replacing with regularity, such as laundry detergent, food essentials and every day toiletries. But it’s not limited to only the essentials. Specialty items such as coffee, beer, wine and even haute couture fashion are in play as subscription services. This podcast shares strategies for taking advantage of trends in convenience.

If you’re having trouble recruiting the right talent, the problem may not be with the applicant pool or job itself, but with the job descriptions you’re posting. Re-examine what you’re looking for in a candidate and make job descriptions more accurate. This podcast helps you target and attract the most qualified candidates by giving you three questions to ask before you craft your next round of job postings.

More than 76 million baby boomers are turning 65 at a rate of nearly 8,000 per day, according to 2014 U.S. Census Bureau data. It’s a demographic that demands the respect of the customer service staffers who serve them. And don’t forget: Boomers still control most of the country’s wealth and wield most of its purchasing power. This shifting demographic means that many retailers will have to update customer service programs to meet the unique needs of an increasingly aging society. This podcast helps listeners build trust — and loyalty — with this important group by sharing some of its key characteristics.

Blogging serves as an increasingly important tool for building and maintaining brand identity, but it can be a daunting prospect for those who don’t consider themselves writers. The good news? You don’t need to be Shakespeare (or Perez Hilton) to draw an audience; you just need to be . Authenticity can define your brand and help it connect with readers. This podcast offers five steps to help you blog with confidence.

An easy-to-manage social media plan can help businesses connect with customers. Users spend almost 2 hours per day on social media sites and post millions of updates and videos every minute, as data from a 2015 GlobalWebIndex report and a 2015 CIO-dot-com report shows. This podcast shares three ways to engage and capture the interest of these active users: creating smart content; engaging customers; and driving social media users to business websites.

Flash sales are one of the hottest trends in e-commerce these days for one simple reason: They work. As with any marketing campaign, though, planning is critical. Follow these four steps to help ensure that your flash doesn’t fizzle.

Online shopping is expected to continue growing exponentially over the next five years. But according to a recent report from customer-service specialist TimeTrade, total online sales will still be a fraction of the 5 trillion dollars that U.S. shoppers are expected to spend in physical stores by 2020. This podcast reviews some highlights of TimeTrade’s report titled "The State of Retail 2015."