KEY POINTS:
Is that you lying on a sun lounger at the bach, but unable to kick the stress?
Summer is the time when most of us dream about quitting the nine-to-five existence. Escaping the rat race is a path well trodden, but one that doesn't always pan out - especially if you lack capital or the resilience to see projects through to completion.
In Britain, market research company Opinium Research, on behalf of Direct Line, found in 2008 that one in six adults dream of turning their hobby into a business.
In New Zealand that dream is often associated with starting a cafe, restaurant, bed and breakfast, or tourism business. But dreams and realities can be a million miles apart.
Some people will overcome the urge to escape by taking sabbaticals and travelling or doing charity work such as Volunteer Service Abroad.
Escaping the rat race doesn't always mean changing jobs. Some people continue within the same career in fields such as real estate, teaching or local government, but base themselves in a coastal location.
Or you can do as Craig Wilson did and set up a consultancy business that could be based virtually anywhere in New Zealand. Wilson launched Quality Tourism Development, a training, marketing and consulting business, as the means to escape Auckland and head south.
Ironically Wilson, who grew up in Oamaru, had the job of selling Auckland to the world as a tourist destination as he was planning his own escape.
After one too many trips to Queenstown and the South Island, which left him with a pang of homesickness, Wilson hatched a plan to quit his job with Tourism Auckland, where he was general manager of marketing. He decided to set up as a consultant, build a nationwide client base and move it south.
Wilson now lives just five minutes' drive from Nelson airport and can be in Hawkes Bay, Wellington or Queenstown much more quickly than he would living in Auckland - with no traffic jams to negotiate.
"Nelson was a really logical choice. In Auckland I was starting to get really annoyed with the cost of parking. Here it is only $8 for a day."
Commuting is easy with daily flights to Auckland.
Although Wilson admits that in some ways he has replaced one rat race for another, there are distinct advantages to working from where he does.
First, he finds the creative atmosphere of Nelson beneficial to his business thinking.
"It is one of the advantages I didn't think about - the clear thinking you can do in an unhurried pace of life. There is a creative energy that goes on here in Nelson that I didn't get in Auckland."
Wilson has also bought a share of an upmarket tourism operation, Simply Wild, and gets to entertain well-heeled clients on luxury excursions such as $10,000-a-night yacht charters.
There are disadvantages to escaping the big smoke. Wilson doesn't get to do the regular networking he would do based in the city and it concerns him that out of sight might mean out of mind for some clients.
He overcomes both by getting to the regions where his clients are and by writing articles for Tourism Business magazine and other publications.
Through his business, Wilson meets many former rat-racers who have set up tourism businesses.
"They often feel they are hostage in the big corporate environment that has served them well in terms of money. The common ingredient is that they are people people and have a wonderful passion for the place they [move to]."
One of the fallacies is that by leaving the big city and starting a tourism business they'll be less busy, says Wilson.
It's more about exchanging where you want to be and getting away from the "superficial ego dominance" of the city.
Unfortunately for many of those kicking the sand right now, it takes big money to set up a tourism business.
You either need to buy an existing business, if you want cashflow from day one, says Wilson, or set one up from scratch and have sufficient money to fund your lifestyle for at least three years until the business starts making money.
The money needed to buy a typical existing tourism business ranges from $300,000 to $3 million, says Wilson - although he says the $1.5 million mark is more typical.
"There are caveats in the current economic climate" with tourism numbers down and the future uncertain.
Wilson points out that many of those looking to escape could do that by redefining what success means to them, instead of moving to the beach to escape their former lives.
"It is about being happy in our day-to-day lives.
"We can do that on the beach. Or we can do that in Auckland without creating havoc in our lives.
"It is about escaping the preciousness of succeeding using a hard stick that is not quite right."
* www.careershifters.com
* www.careerplanning.about.com
