It's important to look at financials within a context, says Marcia Layton Turner is the Rochester, N.Y.-based author of The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Small Business . If your sales dip every fall, then that's not a problem. Compare numbers against prior months and against last year's financials. Other indicators of bad weather Customer comments or complaints are up. Customers' moods and actions can indicate how your business is functioning or malfunctioning, says Gene Fairbrother, president of MBA Consulting in Dallas.
Customers are in financial trouble.
If your company catches their bad-times flu, it can have a disastrous impact on its health. Key customers stop buying from your company. Employees are deserting your firm like rats jumping from a sinking ship. A spike in employee turnover can indicate there's an underlying problem. Employee morale is down.