Top Franchise Legal Players: Cheryl Mullin, Founding Shareholder of Mullin P.C.
Mullin didn’t know what she wanted to do right out of highschool, so she began working at a 7-Eleven. A few years later, that experience propelled her into a franchise law career.
Like many young adults, Cheryl Mullin exited high school with little idea of where she wanted to venture professionally. So instead of mulling it over in a dorm room and in and out of class, she got to work. And little did she know, things would fall into place just by putting the wheels in motion.
“I didn't know what I was going to do; I was trying to figure things out. I ended up working at the 7-Eleven that was around the corner from my house, and two great things happened from that,” said Mullin. “My husband was working for the company at the time as a field rep, and he had to work in stores and learn the system before he could counsel other franchisees. He was my manager, and he taught me all about the system and franchising — all about the 7-Eleven business operations.”
Mullin’s 7-Eleven experience paid off, as the business acumen she acquired inspired her to go to college and then to law school.
“I had an opportunity to work with someone who was a pioneer in the franchise industry, and my 7-Eleven experience came in handy,” Mullin stated. “That's how I was hired.”
Now, Mullin works as an attorney at Mullin P.C. — her practice that focuses on assisting commercial clients achieve their growth objectives through franchising, joint ventures, acquisition and private investment. She also provides intellectual property protection services to small and mid-size enterprises, business transition planning services for closely-held businesses and commercial litigation support on business issues.
When working with her franchise clients, she loves being a part of their “family” environment, and it motivates her to work with brands that love what they do and are excited to grow and bring new people into their community.
“They are like family, they fight like a family and they celebrate achievements like a family — so that's the part that I really like,” said Mullin.
Franchising has a family-style environment, so there is also a focus on people. With a franchisee/franchisor relationship, there needs to be a clear understanding of the contract and what agreements need to be upheld.
Mullin noted, “Knowing who you're partnering with is really the key. You want to know what kind of support they provide. You want to know about their system, so doing your due diligence and talking to other franchisees and their experience has been the best thing that you can do when you're evaluating purchase systems.”
Mullin also stressed the importance of documentation and training. The franchisor needs to document every process — beginning with the franchisee’s training — so there is never any second guessing, and the processes are the same for every franchisee.
“It starts with training,” said Mullin. “You want to document everything — all the onboarding processes. You want to know if the franchisee has attended all the meetings and attended all the training, and you want that picture of them when they finish training with the certificate, happy and smiling.”
Watch the full interview with Mullin above, or click here to watch it on YouTube.