Az eddigi javaslat is jó, ez csupán egy alternatíva.

Táláltam néhány példát, ahol ezt a kifejezést, ami szószerint kálváriát jelent, kifejezetten üzleti szövegkörnyezetben használják.

"He had no knowledge of the company's ***tribulations*** when he made the sale, he said."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2290679.stm

"Despite the company's ***tribulations***, Liemandt's parents declined to provide the start-up with seed money."

http://www.vault.com/nr/main_article_detail.jsp?article_id=1...

"If the touring company's ***tribulations*** were a play, Act I would show the financially strapped company's executive director being told in late 2004 by the federal Education Department that Congress is eliminating a grant program"

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE0DC1F3FF...

Alternatively "trials and tribulations".

If you want the alliterative effect I'd go with 'sad saga', especially if the business in question starts with and 'S'!

I simply think 'sorry tale' has less of a literary affectation and is more common in plain texts. Google also puts its count as twice more common than 'sad saga'.

As with tribulations, I would be inclined to use "trials and tribulations' as the word on its own is slightly awkward.

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Note added at 20 hrs (2007-09-07 10:47:15 GMT)
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Proz obviously doesn't like google's extended search options!! The examples above have part of the search term abruptly cut off at the end.

More specific examples:
http://www.google.hu/search?hl=hu&client=firefox-a&rls=org.m...