diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 80509cec..3d8206e3 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -131,7 +131,11 @@ KUSTOMIZE_INSTALL_SCRIPT ?= "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/k
 .PHONY: kustomize
 kustomize: $(KUSTOMIZE) ## Download kustomize locally if necessary.
 $(KUSTOMIZE): $(LOCALBIN)
+ifeq ("$(wildcard $(KUSTOMIZE))","")
 	curl -s $(KUSTOMIZE_INSTALL_SCRIPT) | bash -s -- $(subst v,,$(KUSTOMIZE_VERSION)) $(LOCALBIN)
+else
+	$(info Using preexisting ${KUSTOMIZE})
+endif
 
 .PHONY: controller-gen
 controller-gen: $(CONTROLLER_GEN) ## Download controller-gen locally if necessary.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9dffaf97..d6c94ece 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -61,12 +61,14 @@ Make sure you are aware of [DigitalOcean's pricing](https://www.digitalocean.com
 make install
 ```
 
-2. Build and push your image to the location specified by `IMG`:
-	
+**Note M1 Macbook users:** this project is made with Kubebuilder which uses `Kustomize v3.8.7` which doesn't have an ARM release and so you need to [manually install kustomize](#manually-installing-kustomize-m1-mac-users) for this step to succeed
+
+2. Build and push your image to the location specified by `IMG` (in the [Makefile](Makefile)):
+
 ```sh
 make docker-build docker-push IMG=<some-registry>/do-operator:tag
 ```
-	
+
 3. [Deploy cert-manager](https://cert-manager.io/docs/installation/), which is necessary to manage certificates for the webhooks.
 
 4. Generate a [DigitalOcean API token](https://docs.digitalocean.com/reference/api/create-personal-access-token/) to use for testing.
@@ -103,6 +105,13 @@ To delete the CRDs from the cluster:
 make uninstall
 ```
 
+### Manually Installing Kustomize (M1 Mac users)
+1. Clone the [Kustomize project](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize)
+2. Go to the `v3.5.7` branch: `git checkout kustomize/v3.8.7`
+3. Go into the `kustomize` folder (so from the project root it would be `kustomize/kustomize/`)
+4. `go build .`
+5. Now move the generated `kustomize` binary into the `bin` directory in this project (create it if it doesn't exist `mkdir bin`): `mv kustomize <project path>/bin/kustomize`
+
 ## Contributing
 
 At DigitalOcean we value and love our community!