As an entrepreneur, you live a life filled with technology. From the coffee maker that supplies your morning juice to the device that powers your playlist on your way to work, your day is wrapped in the fabric of technology. That technology extends into your clothing, your phone, and even your car.
You might see yourself driving to your office in a flashy car boasting all the latest technology, blasting your favorite music, and feeling the freedom of the wind through the sunroof. However, when you get to your office, that dream will be replaced with deadlines and hard work.
It doesn’t make sense to go five figures into debt in order to drive a flashy car to and from the office. Your love for technology is best paired with practicality.
The life of an entrepreneur isn’t glamorous
Entrepreneurs are depicted as tech-savvy people who lounge around on the beach with their laptop. In reality, most are hunched over their laptop at home for twenty hours a day. This is the reality behind the veneer of “living the dream” or “living the laptop lifestyle.”
Some entrepreneurs have side gigs at odd hours as a supplement to pay the bills. Some entrepreneurs have to lug heavy electronic equipment around in their cars to meetings and remote offices. Others have families they need to take care of, including kids who need to be dropped off at school and picked up from baseball games and dance classes. All this is done around their work.
Why driving a practical car matters
If you’re chasing the “dream” of driving an expensive luxury sedan or sports car, actualizing that dream can make your life harder. If you’ve got a family to take care of or you’re hauling gear around, you might want to consider a different type of car.
You need a car that will support your lifestyle, your business, and your family, and won’t flatten your wallet in the name of appearances. That car is a minivan. They’re powerful and fuel-efficient, as most of the top-sellers from all makes come with the new Chrysler Pentastar V6 engine.
You don’t need to be a soccer mom to get practical use out of a minivan. Here are 4 reasons a minivan is perfect for entrepreneurs:
1. You can haul around big pieces of equipment and a passenger
There’s nothing wrong with driving a luxury sedan or a tiny sports car that barely seats you and your laptop. Although, you’ll wish you had a bigger car the day you need to load up for work and drop your kid off at school on the way.
When you have a family to drive around, a minivan makes it possible for you to carry your equipment and your passengers at the same time.
2. You can pick up your kids without unloading at home first
You might be thinking you can compromise and get a flashy SUV because they’re big. That’s a nice sentiment, but not practical. If you haven’t already, you’ll find yourself having to unload equipment from your car before you can pick up your kids because the car is big but the interior is deceptively small.
The idea of owning a flashy car is understandable – you want to spend your hard-earned cash on something nice – but when you have a family to take care of, it will complicate your life.
“I’m not going to sit here and complain about driving a Mercedes. It was sweet. But I’ll tell you what – I still missed the van,” says this blogger from Babble.com. “You think when you’re done with car seats the logistics of seating and belts and middle seats will become irrelevant to you. But it doesn’t. I found myself carpooling 3-4 members of the Cross Country team home along with my younger kids. Getting in and out of that gorgeous, deluxe SUV was a killer.”
3. Automatic sliding doors are a gift to full hands
Pushing a button to open the automatic sliding doors when you’ve got your hands full is perhaps the best part of driving a minivan.
4. You can impulse buy furniture for your office
Without a small sedan, one trip to Ikea just to “check things out” can be frustrating when you find items you can’t pass up. With a minivan, you can slide multiple boxes along the seats and floor, and even fold the seats down for larger items. Also, the sliding doors will open wide enough for you to load and unload the car without struggling.
