By Travis Campbell

It’s 60 days before the end of the year. There’s still time to take steps to close out the year strong. The following ideas work around any time of year, but help when they are tied to significant dates or celebrations. Your results may vary, but most of these are fairly easy to do. If you pick 1 or 2 of these, and do them well, it could change how your business finishes the year.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — CIT Group Inc., one of the nation’s leading funders of small and medium-sized businesses, filed for the fifth largest bankruptcy by assets in U.S. history Sunday as part of a reorganization plan that has the support of an overwhelming majority of debtholders.

In a statement, the company said it is asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York for a quick approval of the prepackaged plan. CIT said none of its operating subsidiaries would be affected by the filing, allowing them to continue operations.

“The decision to proceed with our plan of reorganization will allow CIT to continue to provide funding to our small business and middle market customers, two sectors that remain vitally important to the U.S. economy,” said CIT (CIT, Fortune 500) chairman Jeffrey M. Peek.

In the bankruptcy filing, CIT said it had $71 billion in assets and $64.9 billion in liabilities.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy grew in the third quarter for the first time in a year as consumer spending and investment in new home-building rebounded, data showed on Thursday, unofficially ending the worst recession in 70 years.

KEY POINTS: * The Commerce Department, in its first estimate of third-quarter GDP, said the economy grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate, the fastest pace since the third quarter of 2007, after contracting 0.7 percent in the April-June period. * The growth pace in GDP, which measures total goods and services output within U.S. borders, was above market expectations for a 3.3 percent rate. The economy last grew in the second quarter of 2008. * Recessions in the United States are dated by the National Bureau of Economic Research and the private-sector group often takes months to make determinations. The economy slipped into recession at the end of 2007. * The third-quarter recovery was generally broad-based. Consumer spending, which accounts for over two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, surged at a 3.4 percent rate in the third quarter, the fastest advance since the first quarter of 2007.

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By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: October 29, 2009: 12:10 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The U.S. economy grew at a 3.5% annual rate in the third quarter, ending a string of declines over four quarters that resulted in the most severe slide since the Great Depression. But some economists raised doubts about how long such strong growth can last.

The increase in GDP, reported by the government Thursday morning, was slightly better than expectations. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast 3.2% growth in gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation’s economic activity. The economy shrank at a 0.7% rate in the second quarter.

The positive GDP report is one more sign that the economy has likely pulled out of the deep recession that started in December 2007.

The reading by itself doesn’t mark an end to the recession; the economy actually grew in the second quarter of 2008. (The National Bureau of Economic Research, which officially dates the beginning and end of recessions, is not expected to declare that the current recession has ended until sometime in 2010.)

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The nation’s gross domestic product increased at an estimated annual rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said in an advance estimate Thursday.

The data offers the strongest evidence yet that the recession that began in December 2007 ended during the summer — though many economic experts are quick to point out that the recovery has been propped up by government stimulus programs such as the homebuyer tax credit and the Cash for Clunkers program designed to boost automobile sales.

In the second quarter, real GDP — defined as the output of goods and services produced by labor and property in the U.S. — decreased 0.7 percent, the BEA said in a release.

The BEA said its third-quarter advance estimate is based on source data that are incomplete or subject to revision. The agency will release another third-quarter estimate, based on more complete data, on Nov. 24.

The increase in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures, which accounts for about two-thirds of GDP. There were also gains in exports, private inventory investment, federal government spending and residential fixed investment. Imports also increased, the release said. The quarter also saw a smaller decrease in nonresidential fixed investment, partly offset by an upturn in imports, a downturn in state and local government spending, and a deceleration in federal government spending.

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Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama called small businesses the “engine” of the U.S. economy and said too many are still struggling to get the credit they need to operate.

In his weekly address on the radio and Internet, Obama said the nation’s banks, supported by taxpayers in the economic crisis, now need “to stand by the creditworthy small businesses.”

“It’s time for those banks to fulfill their responsibility to help ensure a wider recovery,” Obama said. “We’re going to take every appropriate step to encourage them to meet those responsibilities.”

The president this week announced measures to open up credit for small business, such as capital injections for community banks to spur lending. Obama also asked Congress to raise the limits for Small Business Administration loans from $2 million to $5 million and as much as $5.5 million for manufacturing.

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This was evidently small business week at the White House. (At the National Small Business Week takes place in May.) In addition to the announcement directed at lending on Wednesday (extensively covered here and here), he visited a landscaping company in Connecticut with Sen. Christopher Dodd, the Democrat who happens to be in a tight race for re-election. And his weekend video address honors small companies and their contributions to the economy.

More importantly, he criticized large banks for taking stimulus money and then failing to lend it to small customers. Those entrepreneurs …

Read more NY Times.com

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LANDOVER, Md. – President Barack Obama says the government’s $700 billion financial bailout is shifting away from Wall Street giants and toward small businesses on Main Street.

Obama said on Wednesday that he wants to help small businesses grow and is asking Congress to increase the loan amount they can receive from the Small Business Administration.

Obama also says if smaller banks describe how they would increase lending to small businesses, Washington will give those banks capital so they can loan more money. He says he wants to focus on hard-hit rural and underserved areas.

The president spoke at a small business in a Maryland suburb near Washington.

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By David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Google said Thursday the worst of the recession has passed, as it reported quarterly profit and sales that rose from year-earlier results and easily trounced Wall Street’s forecasts.

“Google had a strong quarter — we saw 7% year-over-year revenue growth despite the tough economic conditions,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, on a conference call with investors. “While there is a lot of uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery, we believe the worst of the recession is behind us and now feel confident about investing heavily in our future.”

Google’s strong third quarter could be a good sign for the economy, as the company’s ad clicks serve as a kind of barometer of consumers’ willingness to spend. The more people click on ads, the more willing they are to buy things.

“It’s all good news from our perspective,” said Schmidt. “I’m very proud of our management team in what could have been a very significant downturn for Google.”

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