What’s a conversion franchise?

There are two situations in which the term conversion franchise may be used, often when the incoming franchisee is likely to be required to have some experience of working in the business sector that is the subject of the franchise.  In the first example, a franchisor goes to someone who already has a business in, say, pizza delivery, estate agency or hairdressing and suggests they ‘convert’ to the franchisor’s brand.  The major benefit to the franchisor being that the elusive franchisee and location are found (and a competitor is taken out of the local market) all at the same time. The advantage to the franchisee comes from improving their business with better branding, better operating systems and ongoing support. The other example is when an existing business decides to ‘convert’ all or some of its company-owned outlets to franchising.  Potential franchisees may be existing staff within the business, incumbent branch managers, or they could be from outside the business. The franchisor sheds some overheads and gets motivated staff; the franchisee gets the opportunity to run their branch in a slightly less ‘managed’ atmosphere.