Problem: Article: To increase conversation, your room should be just large enough to hold your guests and have breathable circulation. This will encourage guests to mingle and get to know people they might not normally talk with. For parties between friends, too close is generally better than too open. Clustering all of the seats together can make the room feel unbalanced and discourage close conversations. Visually divide the room into quadrants and place an equal amount of seats in each quarter. Unless you're having a movie night, TVs are distracting and inhibit conversation. Ignore the TV while setting up your furniture or even face chairs away from it to encourage conversation. If your TV takes up a lot of space and is removable, you may store it in the other room during the party. In case anyone is left without a chair and wants one, keep a few folding chairs nearby. If a guest wants to join a seated conversation, they can set up a folding chair to feel comfortable and welcome. You can also use throw pillows or beanbags for extra seating, if needed.
Summary: Choose a party area that is contained, yet comfortable. Arranging your furniture in seating arrangements for 2-4 people. Set your furniture away from the TV. Keep extra chairs on hand.

Problem: Article: To find a company's dividend payout ratio, first find its net income for the time period you're analyzing (one year is the typical period for dividend payout ratio calculation). This information can be found in a company's income statement. To be clear, you're looking for the company's income after all expenses, including taxes, costs of doing business, depreciation, amortization, and interest. For example, let's say that Jim's Light Bulbs, a new company, earned $200,000 in its first year of business, but it had to spend $50,000 on the expenses mentioned above. In this case, the net income for Jim's Light Bulbs would be 200,000 - 50,000 = $150,000. Find the amount of money that the company paid out in the form of dividends during the time period you're analyzing. Dividends are payments that are given to the company's investors instead of being saved or re-invested in the company. Dividends aren't usually listed on the income statement but are included on the balance sheet and statement of cash flows. Let's say that Jim's Light Bulbs, being a relatively young company, decided to re-invest most of its net income by expanding its production capacity and only paid out $3,750 per quarter in dividends. In this case, we'll use 4 times 3,750 = $15,000 as our amount of dividends paid in the first year of business. Once you know how much a company has made in net income and paid out in dividends in a given time period, finding its dividend payout ratio is simple. Divide its dividend payments by its net income. The value you get is its dividend payout ratio. For Jim's Light Bulbs, we can find the dividend payout ratio by dividing 15,000 by 150,000, which is 0.10 (or 10%). This means that Jim's Light Bulbs paid out 10% of its earnings to its investors and invested the rest (90%) back into the company.
Summary: Determine the net income of the company. Determine the amount of dividends paid out. Divide the dividends by the net Income.

Problem: Article: If someone dislikes you, there are often times you can overlook it and go on with your life. Sometimes, however, a person's negative feelings for you might affect your grades, your job, or your ability to meet and get along with other people. In these situations, it might be time to confront the person who dislikes you: If the person is discriminating against you or treating you unfairly and is in a position of power over you (such as a teacher, boss, or parent), you may decide that it is time to talk to the person or take legal action. If the person is spreading rumors, hurting your reputation, or making your life difficult, you may need to talk to them to find out if there is a way to convince them to stop. If the person is sabotaging your relationships, you may need to confront them as well as the people he or she has interfered with. For example, if you have a father-in-law who does not like you, he may be causing other people to dislike you, possibly even including your own spouse. If the person who dislikes you is abusing you in any way, including physically, sexually, emotionally, or psychologically, it is time to get help. It is normal for people to dislike other people, but it is never ok for dislike to turn into mistreatment or abuse. This might be awkward, but sometimes the only way to know what is going on or why someone has a problem with you is to have an open conversation with her. If you can't figure out why you are disliked and you've tried asking a friend for help, consider confronting the person directly. Try to frame your discussion using "I-phrases." "I-phrases" focus on the speaker's feelings instead of presuming to know what the other person is feeling. Using "I-phrases" helps to keep the other person from becoming defensive. That means instead of saying "Why don't you like me?" keep the focus on your own feelings and say something like "I feel like there is some tension between us. Is there anything I have done or anything I can do to help?" Listen to what the person says, and try to understand from her perspective. Try not to become defensive. Think about whether there is any merit to her claims and why she might feel the way she does. Then, think about whether you should try to improve yourself or change your behavior toward her, or if her issues are unreasonable and not worth the effort. If you've done something to hurt or offend someone and that is the reason that person dislikes you, the best course of action is to try to make it right. There are three components to an effective and sincere apology: Say that you regret what happened. You need to clearly say the words, "I'm sorry." Be sure you don't say "I'm sorry you were offended," or "I'm sorry you felt that way," or anything else that places the blame on the other person for misinterpreting your intentions. Instead, be humble, and own the fact that you've hurt someone. Offer to make it right. Psychologists call this an "offer of compensation," and sometimes it literally entails compensation (for example, if you wreck someone's car, you have to fix it or replace it!). But other times compensation means changing your behavior in the future, spending more time together, doing more work at the office or around the house, or other ways of picking up your own slack and improving your behavior in the relationship. Let the person know that you are aware that what you did was wrong. In addition to saying you're sorry, you need to say that you violated social norms or expectations. For example, you might say, "I know a husband should not do that," or "I was not being a good friend when I did that." Remember that apologizing is as much about helping yourself as it is about righting wrongs. If you are at fault, apologizing can help you to gain perspective and can even lower your levels of stress and anxiety. Just remember that apologizing is only useful if you are at fault and if you are sincerely sorry. If you're not at fault and the person is making your life difficult or treating you unfairly, you may need to talk to someone in a position of authority that can help. This might include a supervisor, parent, teacher, or principal. In some cases, such as discrimination at work resulting from a boss that dislikes you, you may need to consider hiring a lawyer. While it is not illegal for a boss to dislike you, it could be illegal if it is not just because of your personality but because you are a protected minority (for example, if you are a woman, gay, or a person of color), or if he treats you unfairly because he dislikes you. At the end of the day, if you have done everything you can do and are still disliked, you need to give yourself permission to be ok with that. Ultimately, you have to choose to not allow the person who dislikes you to influence you or get you down. It is ok to be disliked. Remember that even the most popular and well-loved celebrities in the world are disliked by some people!
Summary:
Decide when it is time to confront someone. Ask the person herself. Apologize and make it right. Take it higher up. Learn to let go.