Small business owners might be about to get our own version of the bailout, sort of. A proposed $30 billion of the money the big banks have repaid on their bailout loans could go to community banks — in hopes that they’ll in turn lend it to small businesses. President Obama announced the plans for a Small Business Lending Fund this week as part of his job creation program, once again reinforcing the idea that helping small business will help put more Americans to work.

It’s gratifying to see small businesses be taken seriously, and in fact, relied upon to help turn the economy around. When the giant banks were deemed “too big to allow to fail,” I know many of us entrepreneurial types bristled, knowing full well that our success or failure was something that was, and always had been, entirely up to us.

Many of us do, however, take comfort in the fact that our bankers have our backs. Of course, they’re much more eager to lend us money when we don’t need it than when we find ourselves in a lean stretch, but still. I consider my banker a partner in growing my business. Our close relationship and his attention to my company’s needs are due, in large part, to the bank being a small community bank, and not one of the giant financial institutions.

I’m all for a plan that frees up more capital for those community banks to lend. A New York Times reporter quoted Karen Mills, the head of the Small Business Administration (SBA), as saying, “When you look at what’s causing the problem, the problem is that small community banks might lack capital.” The Independent Community Bankers of America point out that “every dollar of capital that goes into a community bank can potentially be leveraged 8 to 10 times into loans to small businesses,” according to the same article in the Times.

The big banks certainly aren’t jumping at the chance to lend to smaller companies. While small-business lending is down for the top 22 largest lenders under the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program, SBA-backed loans are up, according to the Wall Street Journal. In previous years, estimates of SBA-backed loans ranged from as low as 1% to a high of 8%. At least one industry expert predicts they’ll be up 10% to 15% this year.

Entrepreneurs are accustomed to slogging it out on their own. But if the country’s counting on us to create a bunch of jobs, it sure does help to have some sector of banking willing to lend the money it takes to expand and grow. Here’s just one more reason I advise small business owners to find a good banker at a community bank instead of going with a big bank where you’re more likely to get lost in the shuffle.