Portability shapes the possibilities for business, whether it relates to growth, costs, talent or even the business model as a whole. Hence it is one of the characteristics of what we consider to be a dream business. While a dream business may sound like a nice-to-have, by the end you will why it is a must-have, especially in todays world.

Portability generally refers to the ability to move or transfer something from one place to another without much effort. However, this high-level description does not provide you with sufficient context. Because, after all, context does matter!

To make sure we start with a common understanding of the topic, let’s discuss what we actually mean when we talk about portability in the realm of business.
In the context of online business, portability emphasizes the ability to run, manage, and grow a business on your own terms. This means you can work at any time, from anywhere in the world, provided there's an internet connection.

Let’s start with the most obvious benefit of portability, namely freedom. Freedom is a frequently coined term, and not always rightfully so. The way we look at it, freedom means being free in terms of when, where, and how.

As a business owner, you can tailor your working hours to your personal schedule, not the other way around. If you are an early bird and like to start working early, you can do so. Similarly, if you are a night owl, you can work late and have your morning schedule cleared.

Another way to think about it is to pick a market that suits your schedule if you are somewhat bound to business/opening hours. You have the potential to serve a global market; hence, you can serve the European or Asian market (if you are located in the U.S.) to accommodate your preferred working hours. For example, if you want to start later in the day, you can serve the European market. Similarly, if you want to work early in the morning, you can serve the Asian market. 

However, ideally, you can serve any market at any time of the day. If you are not limited to certain opening hours, your business is much more portable.

You can also become location independent if you don’t have a physical location that you need to be present in. Think about all the ‘lost’ hours during your daily commutes if you are bound to a physical location. Or you are forced to live close to that location to make the commute feasible. Nevertheless, being able to work from any place in the world (as long as you have a stable internet connection), provides so much more freedom.

Finally, the way you work is much more flexible if you have a portable business. While it is impossible to regulate the working conditions for everyone in the same place, it becomes easier when you have your own location (somewhere in the world) that you can adjust to your preferences. Think about your own preferences for a moment.

Being able to decide for yourself when, where and how you work, is the ultimate freedom. Again, it is working on your own terms.

Not needing a physical location not only offers freedom but also makes it way easier to scale. You don't need to rent a larger office space or warehouse if you are growing. No, you can scale your business with hardly any marginal costs. Your business will have lower overhead and fixed costs, such as rent, facilities, and utilities.

Therefore, all your costs should be focused on making your products or services better and making them more visible to more people. All spending should somehow be tied back to future revenues. An online marketing campaign can be measured in terms of new sales, whereas traditional marketing is harder to match to new sales.

Being able to use online communication makes collaboration easier, faster, and less manual. Remember the times when plans were written down on a whiteboard or scribbled on a notepad? Realistically, they were not acted upon or got buried under a lot of other paperwork.
Compare that to the fact that you can collaborate online, where all changes are visible to everyone and are saved automatically. Talking about efficiency!

As a result, your business becomes much more adaptable to changing market conditions. Sure, there might be some costs that increase, but they are definitely not increasing at the same rate as you scale your business and thus your revenue. Your ambition or business skills might be the only limiting factor to unlimited growth.

Being able to take your business anywhere in the world, opens up a lot of opportunities. It allows not only the business owner to be location independent, but also their employees.

Attracting talent from anywhere in the world allows your business to find candidates that you can’t attract when you are bound to a location. Since you have more people to choose from, you have a higher likelihood of finding great talent.

What is even better than that? Well, they can also work from their own location of choice. They do not need to relocate (alone or with their family), or adjust to the new culture. Business owners can also offer competitive salaries based on the living standards in that particular location. Finding better-suited candidates who are offered flexible working environments are more likely to be motivated and committed to the business.
Needless to say, it is a win-win for both the business owner and the employees.

With the work being performed online, the value of the business is created online. This trend, called digitization, allows businesses to replicate, tailor, and distribute their products and services quickly. Think about it, it used to take months to years to transform an idea into a product and adjust it to the needs of the market.

When leveraging exponential technologies, businesses can productize and iterate on their products and services almost instantly. Moving fast and adjusting to fast-changing markets becomes a business model that fosters exponential growth for businesses.