diff --git a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/ebsetenv.py b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/ebsetenv.py
index fbb8dc2d..ba9652db 100644
--- a/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/ebsetenv.py
+++ b/{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/ebsetenv.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 """Converts a .env file to Elastic Beanstalk environment variables"""
 
+import os
 from sys import exit
 from subprocess import check_call
 
@@ -10,10 +11,15 @@ except ImportError:
     exit()
 
 def main():
+    if not os.path.exists('.env'):
+        print('ERROR!! .env file is missing!')
+        print("Please copy 'env.example' to '.env' and add appropriate values")
+        exit()
     command = ['eb', 'setenv']
     failures = []
     for key, value in dotenv.Dotenv('.env').items():
         if key.startswith('POSTGRES'):
+            print('Skipping POSTGRES values - Amazon RDS provides these')
             continue
         if value:
             command.append("{}={}".format(key, value))