Coworking is a weekly segment where we talk to CFOs and others in the finance space about their experiences, their companies, and the larger economy. Let us know if you are—or you know—a CFO we should interview.
Jeff Jones is the CFO of Twisted X, a footwear company for men, women, and children based in Decatur, Texas. Jeff’s background, in addition to finance, includes experience in operations, sales, and marketing.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in finance.
Finance is a spoke in the wheel, as is product development, marketing, sales, and so on. They are all dependent on the other for the company to be successful. My job is to ensure my spoke is helping to support the wheel.
How did you arrive at TwistedX?
Interestingly enough, I wanted to be a psychology major, so I went to college. My dad’s best friend was a CPA and they said, ‘We’ll help pay for your tuition if you get an accounting degree.’ I got the accounting degree and went into public accounting. From there, I went into the home healthcare world on the finance side. The home healthcare company had grown from $300,000 in revenue to $17 million in three years. From there, I went to a retail company where the owner was looking to grow and brought me in for the same thing. We added stores, catalog, Internet and had grown from $1 million to north of $60 million during my time there.
Then, I wandered and was trying to do some stuff on my own—such as trailer manufacturing, where I was a part of the marketing team, and then another Western footwear company as a sales representative—before getting a call from a friend that TwistedX was looking for someone for this role [as CFO] and within a few days, I was hired.
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What have you learned from having such a versatile career path?
I’ve always been curious about what makes people tick, and because of that, I’ve always been curious about what makes businesses tick. I’ve learned that being curious and asking that question, you learn a lot and grow a lot. It’s given me a very good aspect of a lot of things that may not have been in my wheelhouse and I’m still not a master of, but at least I understand them to some degree where if I need some of that expertise or some of that information, I either have it or know where to get it.
What’s a big change that you’ve seen in the world of CFOs, for you personally but also in general?
It’s not just dollars and cents. It’s not just number-crunching. It’s what is going on within the organization as well as on the broader context of industry, global happenings, and macroeconomic conditions. I’ve just had to become a broader consumer of information and a broader thinker than when I started.
How do you decompress?
Fly fishing is probably my greatest passion. It is one thing I do where the rest of the world melts away and completely in the moment. Golf—I’m not a good golfer, but I appreciate time on the course. And my wife and I like jumping in our Jeep and getting off the highway onto some backroads and seeing parts of the country, mostly in the Southwest: Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arkansas.
If you weren’t a CFO, what would you be?
A psychologist or counselor.