Welcome to a Cup of Content! This is Episode #2, and it’s time for Minute Monday.

This is Kim Bultsma from a Cup of Content. You know that sticker that has “Hello! My name is…” on it? It’s easy enough to write our names—but how many of us write just our first name? Maybe we’re at a conference we’re unsure of. Maybe we just don’t want people to ask questions of us. But what if our business had to wear one? What if we think about that sticker differently: If your business had to wear that sticker, what would it say?

Our businesses are so much more than a name. Our businesses have their own personality, their own identity. And it all starts with knowing who we as businesses are.

And shouldn’t our mission statement do just that?

Why does our business exist? What does our business intend to do? Answering these questions might not be simple, but what we must consider is who is all involved in the answer. Our mission statement is not just about the business itself. Our mission statement is about our employees, our customers, our partners, our vendors—any stakeholder. If we don’t know who or what our business is, how can we possibly begin to market ourselves? Often times, businesses get so caught up in knowing how they want to be known that they forget their customers don’t know that, and they aren’t looking for them that way.

And just because your business developed its mission statement 10, 20, 30 years ago—doesn’t have to mean that your mission should remain the same. Businesses evolve—look at the photography world. I know many photographers who refused to embrace digital…and when film became so expensive they had priced themselves out of business. For some, it was too late to move to digital. But for those that embraced it and went with the flow—they now offer their film services at a premium to their already amazing digital photography business. Therefore, their mission evolved.

Now here’s the question: if photographers based their entire business around film today, would their business exist?

Let’s take it a step further: if we were still doing marketing the same way we did 10 years ago, would our business exist? Times change, businesses change, and missions change. We evolve.

So what will your sticker say?

*Of note: This podcast originally appeared on Content a la mode.