diff --git a/pre_commit/resources/pre-commit.sh b/pre_commit/resources/pre-commit.sh
index 9b24294a..1a93b653 100755
--- a/pre_commit/resources/pre-commit.sh
+++ b/pre_commit/resources/pre-commit.sh
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
-pre-commit
\ No newline at end of file
+which pre-commit > /dev/null
+if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
+    echo '`pre-commit` not found.  Did you forget to activate your virtualenv?'
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+pre-commit