diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3e997d2..1216c29 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -48,10 +48,14 @@ RESTORE=false
 
 `dockup` will use your AWS credentials to create a new bucket with name as per the environment variable `S3_BUCKET_NAME`, or if not defined, using the default name `docker-backups.example.com`. The paths in `PATHS_TO_BACKUP` will be tarballed, gzipped, time-stamped and uploaded to the S3 bucket.
 
+If you want `dockup` to run as a cron task, you can set the environment variable `CRON_TIME` to the desired frequency, for example `CRON_TIME=0 0 * * *` to backup every day at midnight.
+
+For more complex backup tasks as dumping a database, you can optionally define the environment variables `BEFORE_BACKUP_CMD` and `AFTER_BACKUP_CMD`.
 
 ## Restore
-To restore your data simply set the `RESTORE` environment variable to `true` - this will restore the latest backup from S3 to your volume.
+To restore your data simply set the `RESTORE` environment variable to `true` - this will restore the latest backup from S3 to your volume. If you want to restore a specific backup instead of the last one, you can also set the environment variable `LAST_BACKUP` to the desired tarball name.
 
+For more complex restore operations, you can define a command to be run once the tarball has been downloaded and extracted using the environment variable `AFTER_RESTORE_CMD`.
 
 ## A note on Buckets
 
diff --git a/backup.sh b/backup.sh
index 20e221c..5ad4c27 100755
--- a/backup.sh
+++ b/backup.sh
@@ -1,17 +1,23 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 export PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/bin
+
 # Get timestamp
 : ${BACKUP_SUFFIX:=.$(date +"%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S")}
 readonly tarball=$BACKUP_NAME$BACKUP_SUFFIX.tar.gz
 
+# If a pre-backup command is defined, run it before creating the tarball
+if [ -n "$BEFORE_BACKUP_CMD" ]; then
+	eval "$BEFORE_BACKUP_CMD" || exit
+fi
+
 # Create a gzip compressed tarball with the volume(s)
 tar czf $tarball $BACKUP_TAR_OPTION $PATHS_TO_BACKUP
 
 # Create bucket, if it doesn't already exist
-BUCKET_EXIST=$(aws s3 ls | grep $S3_BUCKET_NAME | wc -l)
+BUCKET_EXIST=$(aws s3 --region $AWS_DEFAULT_REGION ls | grep $S3_BUCKET_NAME | wc -l)
 if [ $BUCKET_EXIST -eq 0 ];
 then
-  aws s3 mb s3://$S3_BUCKET_NAME
+  aws s3 --region $AWS_DEFAULT_REGION mb s3://$S3_BUCKET_NAME
 fi
 
 # Upload the backup to S3 with timestamp
@@ -19,3 +25,8 @@ aws s3 --region $AWS_DEFAULT_REGION cp $tarball s3://$S3_BUCKET_NAME/$tarball
 
 # Clean up
 rm $tarball
+
+# If a post-backup command is defined (eg: for cleanup)
+if [ -n "$AFTER_BACKUP_CMD" ]; then
+	eval "$AFTER_BACKUP_CMD"
+fi
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/restore.sh b/restore.sh
index 35ce640..eced2c9 100755
--- a/restore.sh
+++ b/restore.sh
@@ -1,10 +1,17 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-# Find last backup file
-: ${LAST_BACKUP:=$(aws s3 ls s3://$S3_BUCKET_NAME | awk -F " " '{print $4}' | grep ^$BACKUP_NAME | sort -r | head -n1)}
+if [ ! -n "${LAST_BACKUP}" ]; then
+  # Find last backup file
+  : ${LAST_BACKUP:=$(aws s3 --region $AWS_DEFAULT_REGION ls s3://$S3_BUCKET_NAME | awk -F " " '{print $4}' | grep ^$BACKUP_NAME | sort -r | head -n1)}
+fi
 
 # Download backup from S3
-aws s3 cp s3://$S3_BUCKET_NAME/$LAST_BACKUP $LAST_BACKUP
+aws s3 --region $AWS_DEFAULT_REGION cp s3://$S3_BUCKET_NAME/$LAST_BACKUP $LAST_BACKUP || (echo "Failed to download tarball from S3"; exit)
 
 # Extract backup
-tar xzf $LAST_BACKUP $RESTORE_TAR_OPTION
+tar xzf $LAST_BACKUP $RESTORE_TAR_OPTION || exit
+
+# If a post extraction command is defined, run it
+if [ -n "$AFTER_RESTORE_CMD" ]; then
+	eval "$AFTER_RESTORE_CMD" || exit
+fi
diff --git a/run.sh b/run.sh
index 8af6650..0deab98 100755
--- a/run.sh
+++ b/run.sh
@@ -3,12 +3,13 @@
 if [[ "$RESTORE" == "true" ]]; then
   ./restore.sh
 else
-  ./backup.sh
-fi
-
-if [ -n "$CRON_TIME" ]; then
-  echo "${CRON_TIME} /backup.sh >> /dockup.log 2>&1" > /crontab.conf
-  crontab  /crontab.conf
-  echo "=> Running dockup backups as a cronjob for ${CRON_TIME}"
-  exec cron -f
-fi
+  if [ -n "$CRON_TIME" ]; then
+    env | grep -v 'affinity:container' | sed -e 's/^\([^=]*\)=\(.*\)/export \1="\2"/' > /env.conf # Save current environment
+    echo "${CRON_TIME} . /env.conf && /backup.sh >> /dockup.log 2>&1" > /crontab.conf
+    crontab  /crontab.conf
+    echo "=> Running dockup backups as a cronjob for ${CRON_TIME}"
+    exec cron -f
+  else
+    ./backup.sh
+  fi
+fi
\ No newline at end of file