diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 27b5526..9991380 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,2 +1,33 @@
-# reso-web-api-reference-server
-RESO Web API and Data Dictionary compliant reference server
+# RESO Web API and Data Dictionary compliant reference server
+
+## Building the server
+
+In order to run your own local server you need a linux / Unix environment with the following dependencies:
+
+* Maven
+* docker-compose
+* wget or curl
+
+Run the `build.sh`
+
+This will create everything to run the test server.
+
+## Running the server
+
+Run the `run.sh`
+
+## Access the Server
+
+Assuming you're running the server locally, go to [http://localhost:8080/RESOservice-1.0/Lookup](http://localhost:8080/RESOservice-1.0/Lookup)\
+Otherwise, you will have to replace `localhost` with the IP of your Docker machine.
+
+## Running with a different database
+
+If you set the `SQL_HOST` Environment Variable, then the build script will not build the test database.
+It will only build the reference server.
+
+You will need to configure the following environment variables, so the server can connect to your custom database.
+
+* SQL_HOST
+* SQL_USER
+* SQL_PASSWORD
diff --git a/build.sh b/build.sh
index 5fa2e9d..0536536 100644
--- a/build.sh
+++ b/build.sh
@@ -1,9 +1,42 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-wget https://github.com/RESOStandards/web-api-commander/releases/download/current-version/web-api-commander.jar -O temp/web-api-commander.jar
-java -jar temp/web-api-commander.jar --generateReferenceDDL --useKeyNumeric > sql/reso-reference-ddl-dd-1.7.numeric-keys.sql
+REAL_VAR0=`readlink -f $0`
+HOME_DIR=`dirname ${REAL_VAR0}`
+TEMP_DIR="${HOME_DIR}/temp"
+SQL_DIR="${HOME_DIR}/sql"
 
-mvn compile
-mvn package
+# Ensure we have directories set up
+[ -d "${TEMP_DIR}" ] && echo "temp directory found." ||  mkdir ${TEMP_DIR}
+[ -d "${SQL_DIR}" ] && echo "sql directory found." ||  mkdir ${SQL_DIR}
 
-docker-compose build
+if [ -z "${SQL_HOST}" ]
+then
+  # Get the Web API Commander, needed to generate the test database
+  if ! wget https://github.com/RESOStandards/web-api-commander/releases/download/current-version/web-api-commander.jar -O temp/web-api-commander.jar
+  then
+    echo "WGET not installed. trying CURL."
+    if ! curl -L https://github.com/RESOStandards/web-api-commander/releases/download/current-version/web-api-commander.jar --output  temp/web-api-commander.jar
+    then
+      echo "CURL not installed. Exiting build."
+      exit
+    fi
+  fi
+
+  java -jar temp/web-api-commander.jar --generateReferenceDDL --useKeyNumeric > sql/reso-reference-ddl-dd-1.7.numeric-keys.sql
+else
+  COMPOSE_FILE="docker-compose.yml"
+fi
+
+if ! mvn compile
+then
+  echo "Maven could not be found."
+  exit
+else
+  mvn package
+fi
+
+if ! docker-compose build
+then
+  echo "docker-compose could not be found.  You may need to install with pip."
+  exit
+fi
diff --git a/optional/docker-db-compose.yml b/optional/docker-db-compose.yml
index d6b727f..7a16054 100644
--- a/optional/docker-db-compose.yml
+++ b/optional/docker-db-compose.yml
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ services:
   docker-mysql:
     restart: always
     container_name: docker-mysql
-    image: mysql
+    image: mysql/mysql-server
     command: --default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password
     environment:
       MYSQL_DATABASE: reso_data_dictionary_1_7
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 8a1b1a8..d483a3e 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@
             <version>${junit.version}</version>
             <scope>test</scope>
         </dependency>
-        
+
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
             <artifactId>jackson-annotations</artifactId>