On February 10th, the New York Times reported that India’s top bank regulator suspended some of PayPal’s services in the country. Many business people in India rely on PayPal to send and receive payments from overseas companies. PayPal allows them to bypass expensive international bank transactions and levels the playing field for international business. But now, with PayPal blocking the transactions of many Indian businesses, online commerce has ground to a halt.

In this technological age we have tools that afford us economic mobility regardless of our geographic location. Unfortunately, these tools are often subject to forces beyond our control—forces like government regulation, institutional policy and cyber attacks. This development in India shines the spotlight on our dependence on these kinds of services, and emphasizes the importance of diversifying our business practices. It also reminds us how important it is to continue to work to keep the marketplace as open and accessible as possible.

Of course, many business people around the world don’t have the luxury of diversifying things like international payment methods. But for those who do, making sure to have more than one way to send and receive payments is just smart business.

Alok Maheshwari, founder and chief executive officer of Harmony Infotech, a nine-employee web development company in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, learned that the hard way. “Like all the freelancing sites, we rely on PayPal. We used to get a check in our company name mailed to us instead, but we stopped because PayPal is very easy to use.” I wonder how Mr. Maheshwari feels about that decision now.

So, what is the moral of the story? If you have the option, never rely too heavily on any one technology or service. Your business will thank you for it.