The scope of this study is to examine the impact of loss avoidance on the credit financing of small private partnerships within Greece, which is a country that faced a huge backlash on the viability of small businesses, mainly due to lack of affordable financing. The study collected a sample from 1119 small partnerships which have published abbreviated financial statements over the period 2003-2018. The research design includes the estimation of panel random-effects regression models. Empirical evidence suggests that firms with higher loss avoidance during the sovereign debt crisis period were receiving more credit from their suppliers, a fact that is positively associated with higher viability (lower distress risk). This is the first study in the literature considering loss avoidance behavior and credit financing before and during a debt crisis, within small private partnership firms. Thus, we add to the growing literature on small private firms’ accounting and financing decisions.