Companies are run by people, so looking at their actions can provide insights into the company's performance. Warning signs would include high turnover or loss of key staff. Loss of staff responsible for key divisions or operational activities can be significantly detrimental to the company's performance due to the loss of knowledge of how the company operates internally. But it may also indicate that people are leaving because they know all is not well within the company. This also has the effect of demotivating the remaining employees.

Another warning sign is frequent changes in auditors. This usually happens when a company has something to hide, or the auditors are not confident about the accuracy of the numbers they are being presented with by the company. Also, nervous, unresponsive, or evasive management. If management becomes increasingly uncooperative with analysts, requests for information about the company, or becomes more delayed in responses to analyst questions, this might indicate that management are unavailable as a result of trying to find emergency funding or have something to hide.

Lastly, misrepresentation or outright lies about the current state and or prospects of the business. Again, this usually happens when management doesn't want to disclose what is truly happening within the company.