diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 47521a1..9082b6c 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@ RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
 # Copy the rest of the application
 COPY . .
 
+# Make entrypoint script executable
+RUN chmod +x /app/docker-entrypoint.sh
+
 # Create volume for persistent database storage
 VOLUME ["/app/instance"]
 
@@ -37,4 +40,4 @@ USER myuser
 EXPOSE 5000
 
 # Command to run the application
-CMD ["gunicorn", "-c", "gunicorn.conf.py", "app:app"]
+ENTRYPOINT ["/app/docker-entrypoint.sh"]
diff --git a/docker-entrypoint.sh b/docker-entrypoint.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..81cef89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-entrypoint.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Initialize the database using init_db.py
+python init_db.py
+
+# Start gunicorn
+exec gunicorn -c gunicorn.conf.py app:app