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John Celifarco, managing partner
of Horizon Funding Group.

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James Celifarco, Horizon Funding
Group.

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My job is basically we're the
middleman, I have- I find the

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customer, find out what they
want, and then place them with a

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company that could give them
what they need, whatever that

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product is, if it's an MCA, if
it's equipment financing, if

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it's a commercial-backed real
estate transaction, the majority

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of our business is MCAs and cash
advance. For the three months at

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the beginning of this year,
January, February, March, are

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probably three of the strongest
months we've ever had. A lot of

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marketing, a lot of things that
we were putting into place at

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the end of last year really was
coming into fruition and our

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business was doing excellent.
And then COVID hit. And for lack

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of a better term it was
basically like a bomb going off.

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The brothers say they had to act
quickly if they wanted to stay

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open.

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It was really tough, we were
down 60 or 70% at one point, we

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really had to readjust our
thinking and readjust our

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business model, whether it be
marketing, or, you know, just

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getting the clients to, you
know, pick up the phone, and

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really just have a conversation
with them. We had to adjust. And

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it's been tough, but we're
better for it.

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Especially since COVID, we've
definitely expanded our

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products, offering a little more
stuff just because with changing

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times, we needed to make sure
that we were giving our

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customers every opportunity to
work with us and not go work

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with somebody else.

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We were getting different
requests. It wasn't just for a

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quick financing package, whether
somebody needs to refinance

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their home, or refinance their
business property or get some

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equipment that they needed. It
wasn't just the conversation of

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I need, you know, 20 or 30, or
$50,000, just for example,

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quickly, there was you know,
there was other needs, and we

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needed to find partners that
could fulfill those needs

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quickly. 

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They say a key element to making
sure their business state of

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flow was incorporating new
technology and ideas while

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maintaining old business
relationships. How exactly has

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technology been implemented in
horizon, especially during this

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time?

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Well, we're lucky, we were able
to find another company that we

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work with that that helped us a
lot, that name of the company is

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Babylon Solutions. And what they
were able to do is set us up

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with a CRM, that not only helps
us track our existing deals, but

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new deals, working with our
partners, ways to get

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submissions from them helped
tremendously with our renewal

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business, having a decent sized
book of business working with so

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many people, sometimes it's hard
to keep track of when it's time

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to contact a client again to
do new business, or where they're

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at in their current deal. And
with the right systems in place,

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by putting this in place, we're
able to do more with less.

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A lot of times you'll see in the
cash advance industry, people,

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you know, keep very to
themselves. And, you know, we'll

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talk about partners and
marketing and funders, and

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we're the complete opposite. We
are an open book, we want

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everybody to know everything
that we're doing. And we think

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that, you know, having this open
relationship with our partners

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it gains trust, but it also, you
know, you see the problems that

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I'm trying to figure out, and we
see the problems that our

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partners are trying to figure
out, openly, and we get to the

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bottom of that quickly.

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Is there opportunity in real
estate?

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Yeah, so brokers really can't
leave money on the table at this

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point. You know, if they have a
client that is looking for a

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real estate backed transaction,
they should be able to, you

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know, place that transaction,
there is money in it, you know,

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the deal takes longer to get
done, the paperwork is longer,

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but there is absolutely a great
opportunity, you put these deals

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in the hopper, so to speak. And
then three, four months later,

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you're not going to make the 10%
that you used to or the, you

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know, 8% on an MCA, you make a
couple of points, you know,

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you're working with multiple
people, but uh, these deals, you

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know, you put them in the
hopper, like we say, and, you

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know, three, four months later,
they come around.

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Talk to me about the future of
the company in the next couple

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of months.

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It's really john and I hitting
the phones. We are on the front

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lines and we are the ones
calling the merchant,

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introducing ourselves during the
introductory call and you know,

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holding their hand from the
first funding but anybody can

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get paperwork in. It's about
keeping a client after the first

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funding and, and being able to
sell them different products. So

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yeah, you might be able to sell
them one, you know, one MCA, but

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can you manage that relationship
for you know, I have clients

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for- one client I had for the
last 12 years. I've had clients for

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the last 10 years. And it's
about you know, sending that

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person a Christmas card and, you
know, really forming a

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relationship with that client,
and your partners not just your

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clients.

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Johny Fernandez, deBanked News.