diff --git a/.travis/deploy_script.sh b/.travis/deploy_script.sh
index 988dc021..1399efaf 100755
--- a/.travis/deploy_script.sh
+++ b/.travis/deploy_script.sh
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ if [ "$TRAVIS" = "true" ]; then
 
     # clear any app specific stuff that might have been loaded in
     find storage/app/public -mindepth 1 -not -name '.gitignore' -print0 -exec rm -rf {} +
-	find storage/app -mindepth 1 -not -name '.gitignore' -not -name public -print0 -exec rm -rf {} +
+    find storage/app -mindepth 1 -not -name '.gitignore' -not -name public -print0 -exec rm -rf {} +
 
     # Remove any development files
     rm -rf .sass-cache
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ if [ "$TRAVIS" = "true" ]; then
     # remove large sized files
     rm -rf .git
     rm -rf node_modules
+    rm -rf composer.phar
 
     # delete files in vendor that are rather large
     rm -rf vendor/willdurand/geocoder/tests
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 852e98c8..223732cd 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 # Create the phpvms database if needed:
 # docker exec phpvms /usr/bin/mysql -uroot -e 'CREATE DATABASE phpvms'
 SHELL := /bin/bash
+COMPOSER ?= composer
 
 PKG_NAME := "/tmp"
 CURR_PATH=$(shell pwd)
@@ -30,7 +31,7 @@ clean-routes:
 
 .PHONY:  build
 build:
-	@php composer.phar install --no-interaction
+	@php $(COMPOSER) install --no-interaction
 
 # This is to build all the stylesheets, etc
 .PHONY: build-assets
@@ -46,14 +47,14 @@ install: build
 
 .PHONY: update
 update: build
-	@php composer.phar dump-autoload
-	@php composer.phar update --no-interaction
+	@php $(COMPOSER) dump-autoload
+	@php $(COMPOSER) update --no-interaction
 	@php artisan migrate --force
 	@echo "Done!"
 
 .PHONY: reset
 reset: clean
-	@php composer.phar dump-autoload
+	@php $(COMPOSER) dump-autoload
 	@make reload-db
 
 .PHONY: reload-db
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2dc48f52..440eadce 100755
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -25,6 +25,13 @@ php artisan migrate:refresh --seed
 
 then point your webserver to the `/public` folder.
 
+By default, the Makefile calls the system-wide `composer`. If your host requires a 
+certain path or name for composer, add `COMPOSER=` to the front of the `make` command, e.g:
+
+```bash
+COMPOSER=composer.phar make install
+```
+
 ## development environment
 
 For development, copy the included `env.php.example` to `env.php` file. By default, it uses sqlite
diff --git a/composer.phar b/composer.phar
deleted file mode 100644
index d8d8a3f4..00000000
Binary files a/composer.phar and /dev/null differ