What a CPA and Attorney Taught Me About Reclaiming My 168 Hours

Christopher C. Papin is a CPA and attorney who owns and operates both a law firm and a CPA firm, working almost entirely with small business owners. The son of entrepreneurs, he lived a real succession plan when his father passed unexpectedly and his brother took over the family business — and that history is the soil his book grew out of: 168 Hours, a small business owner’s guide “that respects your time.”

In this episode of Unscripted Small Business with host Zaneta Chuniq Inpower, Chris makes a deceptively simple case: every owner controls the same 168 hours in a week, and the overwhelm you feel is normal — but it’s yours to steer. Along the way the conversation takes an unusually candid turn, with Zaneta opening up about her own doubts and Chris coaching her live.

We All Get the Same 168 Hours

The title of Chris’s book is its whole thesis. We each get 168 hours in a week — some of us use them well, some badly, and most of us both in the same week. The difference isn’t the clock; it’s the choices.

“The NBA MVP has the same amount of hours as the last man on the bench. One of them just uses them in a unique way differently than the other. It’s the same in business.” — Christopher C. Papin

Overwhelm Is Normal — But You’re in Control

Most conversations Chris has start from a financial pain point — a tax bill, cash flow, buying in or out of a partner — but they resolve to the same root: you’re the only person carrying the weight, in a constant battle for time. He pictures a pie split into thirds — work, family, rest — where giving from one takes from another.

“It’s normal, it’s okay, but guess what? You’re in control. It’s your business, it’s your decisions. You set the schedule every single day.” — Christopher C. Papin

“Sometimes you get lost in the chaos and you do the squeaky wheel kind of thing. And then five hours later, we’ve accomplished nothing and you feel exhausted. And all of a sudden you’ve lost your Monday.” — Christopher C. Papin

Why a Week Beats a Day or a Month

Chris deliberately built the book around the week. A day is too short for an owner in the trenches; a month is overwhelming — like planning a month of meals on a fitness journey. The week is the happy medium, and it’s built on the fundamentals of a business plan, personalized to you.

“That week is kind of that happy medium. So it’s just long enough. You start to feel a little bit of that pain and you can start to stray. But same vein, it’s not too long to where it’s overwhelming.” — Christopher C. Papin

“It’s just laying the infrastructure to help you have the clarity to go get what you want, not what everybody else tells you you want or what social media says you should want.” — Christopher C. Papin

The Book’s Real Deliverable: Your Own Business Plan

The ideal reader is the person stuck in analysis paralysis. The book is a worksheet designed to push you forward, ending in something you can hold.

“The whole book is designed to get you to take the steps forward. And at the end of it, you should have a deliverable that says, here’s my business plan. These are my thoughts, no one else’s.” — Christopher C. Papin

There Is No Right Answer — Just Go Do and Reflect

When Zaneta admitted, unrehearsed, that she’d thought that very morning this might be the last year of her CPG business, Chris didn’t hand her an answer. He handed her a loop: do, reflect, adjust, repeat.

“There is no right answer. There’s none. What’s important is that you go do and then have the wisdom to reflect and say, okay, did I do what I think is advancing towards my goal or did I not? If it is, cool. If not, adjust and then do it again.” — Christopher C. Papin

“On a Tuesday, a decision sounds really great and it’s crystal clear. And then on Thursday, it’s wrong. You do the best you can with the info you got on Tuesday and live with it. And that’s okay.” — Christopher C. Papin

Green Light Yourself

Borrowing Zaneta’s phrase, Chris tells owners they already know how to do most of what’s in front of them. The failure mode is “speaking with your feet” — wanting the business but never sitting down to do the work.

“We have to green light ourselves. You do know how to do a lot of these things. Or sometimes your gut instinct and that intuition is screaming the other direction.” — Christopher C. Papin

“Sometimes people will speak with their feet. They say they want a business. They say they want the ownership, but they never sit down and do it. Or they delegate everything and never have the accountability.” — Christopher C. Papin

Accountability and Minimum Standards

Chris coaches a youth soccer team, and one of his best players emailed to bench himself over a sub-80 grade — not because the school made him, but because his mother did. The coaches agreed.

“It’s something like that where you recognize the minimum standard is not enough here. Many people have those experiences, even though it’s just as simple as, I’ve got to get my 79 up to an 85.” — Christopher C. Papin

Marketing Can’t Save a Bad Product

Chris pushes back hard on the owner fantasy of a marketing hire as savior. Marketing amplifies; it doesn’t rescue.

“Marketing can take a really good product and turn it into a gold mine. But a polished turd is still a turd, right? Marketing can’t sell that.” — Christopher C. Papin

You can find 168 Hours by Christopher Papin on Amazon (search “168 Hours” + Chris Papin, P-A-P-I-N), and follow Chris on LinkedIn for tips and tricks. His own recommended read, for what it’s worth: The Precious Present — “an easy read, simple, but it has a lot of meaning.”