Her supervisor, who is no longer with the company, and Mr. Mercer knew of her troubles, she said, and at her annual evaluation offered to buy her a car instead of giving her a $3,000 raise. They also helped her find the right car, a Diamanti, and paid $4,500 for it, she said. She told them to work out an installment so she could pay the difference. They never did.

And then she got a second pleasant surprise: her raise started showing up in her paycheck as well.

“A company that takes care of their employees,” Ms. Richmond said, “it definitely is returned to them tenfold because their employees are going to take care of them and do a good job.”

Creativity and sensitivity meshed with good business sense at Vurv, and that is a crucial aspect of problem solving, according to Glenn Okun, clinical professor of management and entrepreneurship at the Stern School of Business at New York University. “Entrepreneurs must remember that resources have costs that must be borne by the firm,” he said.

Small-business owners should approach such instances analytically, Professor Okun said, examining risk and opportunity. Act as if you are a third party interested in financing your own company, he suggested, and then decide how to proceed.

Especially now, when economic times are tough, Professor Okun said, business owners will have to weigh unexpected outlays against the knowledge there will be potentially less revenue coming in and less credit extended by lenders and investors to smooth rough patches. In this environment, he said, “problems get magnified, even if the firm is solid.”

The solution at Vurv was a balancing act of trying to help employees while not hurting the bottom line.

The same was true for the Transtec Group in Austin, Tex., which helps public and private agencies in street, highway, airfield and seaport projects. Dan K. Rozycki, its president, recalled what happened when an employee had to get out of her apartment after a relationship broke up. “In a matter of days,” Mr. Rozycki said, “we helped her find a new apartment and we furnished the whole place from sofa to spatula.”