diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index d19d5bc..7299849 100755
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -55,14 +55,22 @@ ENV MONGO_LOG $HOME/.mongodb.log
 RUN mkdir $MONGO_DB
 
 # launch mongo
+# this could be done as an entrypoint or whatever
 # RUN mongod --dbpath $MONGO_DB --logpath $MONGO_LOG --fork --journal
 
+# create a script for launching mongo
+RUN mkdir $HOME/bin 
+RUN echo 'mongod --dbpath $MONGO_DB --logpath $MONGO_LOG --fork --journal' > $HOME/bin/mongod-start
+RUN chmod +x $HOME/bin/mongod-start
+ENV PATH $PATH:$HOME/bin
 
-# add a volume from the current folder
-# ADD . /data
+# create a data volume
+VOLUME /data
 
 # expose the ports
 EXPOSE 8000
 EXPOSE 9000
 EXPOSE 3000
 EXPOSE 35729
+
+
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index e65788a..33756aa
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,2 +1,16 @@
 # docker-mean-dev
 A docker container for developing mean stack applications
+
+Useage
+######
+
+Build the container with 
+  sudo docker build -t 'tag name' .
+
+and run with 
+  sudo ./docker-run
+
+The run script will attempt to mount a data volume from the host os from ~/docker/data.
+
+Finally, from the docker container, launch mongod with
+  mongod-start
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docker-run b/docker-run
index af91733..d68afd3 100755
--- a/docker-run
+++ b/docker-run
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-docker run -v ~/docker/data -p=8000:8000 -p=9000:9000 -p=3000:3000 -p=35729:35729 -it adamarthurryan/mean-dev
\ No newline at end of file
+docker run -v ~/docker/data:/data -p=8000:8000 -p=9000:9000 -p=3000:3000 -p=35729:35729 -it adamarthurryan/mean-dev
\ No newline at end of file