How’s Business Doing? A Gut-Check on the Most Important Things to Watch for in Any Business

“If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” (Oh wait, that’s Drucker not me. But hey, he nailed it.) Whether you’re trying to optimize your bottom line or just wondering if your gut instinct is leading you in circles, every successful CFO knows: the numbers don’t lie—but are you looking at the right ones? 

Businesses don’t stumble into success; they monitor it. It’s a bit like stepping on the scale. You don’t want to—but you HAVE to.

Here’s your CFO-ready gut check on the most critical business metrics to watch… and why.

Table of Key Metrics to Evaluate Business Health

Here’s a quick visual rundown of what you need to track—plus why these matter in your strategy playbook.

Metric	What It Means	Why It’s Critical
Cash Flow	Inflow vs. outflow of cash.	Keeps the lights on. Even if you’re “profitable,” cash-starvation can kill your business.
Net Profit Margin	Net income ÷ Revenue.	Shows how efficiently you convert revenue into actual profit. (Hint: It’s not all about “sales” here.)
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)	Cost to acquire one new customer.	If you’re burning cash to gain clients, but they aren’t sticking, that’s an expensive treadmill.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)	The total revenue a customer brings over time.	High CLV vs. CAC? Great. CLV < CAC? Danger. You need loyalty, not leaks.
Break-Even Point	How much revenue to hit zero loss/profit.	Knowing your break-even is like knowing where the cliff is before you start driving.
Burn Rate	Monthly cash spent before profitability.	The faster you burn cash, the quicker you’ll need a solution—like funding, cuts, or revenue boosts.
Accounts Receivable Turnover	How quickly you’re collecting payments.	Delayed payments choke your cash flow. Turn those “I’ll pay later” into “paid today.”
Employee Productivity Rate	Revenue ÷ # of employees.	Shows whether your team structure fuels or hinders growth. (Productive doesn’t mean “overworked.”)
Inventory Turnover	How fast you sell and replace inventory.	Slow turnover? Money’s stuck. Fast? Great—if you aren’t running out too soon.
Revenue Growth Rate	Month-over-month or year-over-year revenue increase.	If growth stalls, so do opportunities. Healthy businesses show sustained, steady momentum.

CFO Insight: Gut Checks Matter

Every CFO should gut-check these metrics quarterly—and more frequently when conditions shift.

Ask yourself: Are sales scaling sustainably? What’s eating your cash flow? Is growth accelerating, or have you hit a plateau?

Don’t Wait Until It Hurts

Most business problems are like back pain. They’re easy to ignore at first... until they’re crippling. The most successful CFOs don’t “wait and see”—they look hard at the numbers before their gut says “ouch.”

Action Steps

1. Set Your KPIs – Customize this table to fit your industry’s biggest financial concerns.

2. Automate the Monitoring – Use dashboards or tools like QuickBooks, NetSuite, or Tableau to stay on top of things.

3. Create Monthly Gut-Check Meetings – Sit down, dig into the data, and ask yourself one question: What’s the story here?

   
   

Final 'Food' for Thought

If your gut says something’s off—trust it—but verify with your metrics. Remember, businesses don’t collapse overnight; they send signals. Learn to read those signals, and you’ll go from reactive to proactive faster than you can say “quarterly earnings.”