As America’s 30 million small businesses celebrate National Small Business Week this week, as coordinated by the U.S. Small Business Administration, leaders of those small businesses are taking their own advice when it comes to shopping for credit.

Chester County small businesses take note: There’s success — and satisfaction — to be had in doing business with small banks, according to the results of several regional Federal Reserve Banks’ Small Business Credit Survey, as reported on by Kate Davidson in The Wall Street Journal.

After crunching the numbers, a healthy 79 percent of the almost 3,500 small-business owners surveyed were found to have been approved for financing, but who they sought that money from made all the difference.

Success was had by 76 percent of small businesses seeking funds from small banks and only 58 percent of those knocking on the doors of big banks.

“These survey results are consistent with our experience serving small businesses,” said Vince Liuzzi, executive vice president and chief banking officer of DNB First.

The gap affected businesses of all sizes, even those that generated more than $10 million a year in revenue. And more businesses were satisfied with their small bank experience than those dealing with large banks.

“There’s tremendous diversity among our customers,” Liuzzi explained, “from long-established firms that are pillars of our community, to entrepreneurial start-ups that face challenges obtaining the financing and other solutions they need to grow. From a banking perspective, one size certainly doesn’t fit all,” say Liuzzi.

“Over time, DNB First has accumulated extensive experience with and understanding of our market and customers, which allow us to deliver tailored banking solutions that meet the specific needs of smaller business clients.”

But success and satisfaction haven’t deterred some of the smallest businesses from increasingly flocking to online lenders despite their poor satisfaction rates, which are due primarily to high interest rates and tough payment terms.

While the majority of lenders say they’ll hand out more loans in 2016, those may come at a cost.

“Spreads are still tight for most banks, so you will see banks take advantage of rising rates by issuing variable-rate loans while customers respond by trying to lock in low fixed-rate loans,” Sageworks Senior Risk Management Consultant Rob Ashbaugh said in the article.

Read more about the small business lending climate in The Wall Street Journal here.