diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0a0604f..6fbc687 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ If you're using Git, you can add Dotbot as a submodule:
 
 ```bash
 cd ~/.dotfiles # replace with the path to your dotfiles
+git init # initialize repository if needed
 git submodule add https://github.com/anishathalye/dotbot
 cp dotbot/tools/git-submodule/install .
 touch install.conf.yaml
@@ -47,6 +48,7 @@ If you're using Mercurial, you can add Dotbot as a subrepo:
 
 ```bash
 cd ~/.dotfiles # replace with the path to your dotfiles
+hg init # initialize repository if needed
 echo "dotbot = [git]https://github.com/anishathalye/dotbot" > .hgsub
 hg add .hgsub
 git clone https://github.com/anishathalye/dotbot