You can milk a cow everyday but only barbeque it once

Small business owners are turning to their dads for words of wisdom to ride out the recession, a new study has revealed.

More than a quarter of small and medium sized businesses (27%) have asked ‘downturn dads’ for advice and nine in ten rate his advice as good – higher than any other informal source, including partners.

The study, commissioned by the Royal Mail as part of its Partner for Growth campaign, also revealed the pitfalls in relying on friends or family, particularly ex-partners, with businesses admitting that they had provided the worst advice they had ever received.

But businesses are continuing to rely on the expert help and services of more formal sources of support. The survey of 600 small and medium sized businesses showed that 57% of SMEs use these sources of advice, demonstrating the crucial service they provide.

The survey also listed the top four strangest business tips some of the downturn dads have provided:

1. You can milk a cow everyday but only barbeque it once!
2. Don’t pay until you see the whites of their eyes 
3. There is no settling the point of precedence between a louse and a flea 
4. Slowly slowly catchee monkey – don’t grow too big too quick

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