diff --git a/salt-formula-manager.py b/salt-formula-manager.py
index 913717d..5ac00f3 100644
--- a/salt-formula-manager.py
+++ b/salt-formula-manager.py
@@ -30,11 +30,32 @@ def check_formula_dir(conf):
 
 # loops through the array of repos and downloads them
 def get_formulas(conf):
+    # loop through the defined formulas
     for formula in conf['formulas']:
+        git_url = ''
+        local_path = ''
+
+        # check if the formula entry is a string or a dictionary
         if isinstance(formula, dict):
-            print('Downloading ' + str(formula['url']) + ' into ' + str(conf['formulas_dir']) + '/' + str(formula['name']))
+            # entry is a dictionary
+            git_url = str(formula['url'])
+            local_path = str(conf['formulas_dir']) + '/' + str(formula['name'])
         elif isinstance(formula, str):
-            print('Downloading ' + str(conf['formulas_url']) + str(formula) + '-formula into ' + str(conf['formulas_dir']) + '/' + str(formula) + '-formula')
+            # entry is a string
+            git_url = str(conf['formulas_url']) + str(formula) + '-formula'
+            local_path = str(conf['formulas_dir']) + '/' + str(formula) + '-formula'
+        else:
+            # entry type is not supported
+            print('One of your entries is not a dict or a string (' + str(formula) + ') - please fix this.')
+            sys.exit(1)
+
+        # check if the destination directory exists
+        if os.path.exists(local_path):
+            print(local_path + ' already exists, so we\'re skipping this.')
+        else:
+            print('Downloading ' + git_url + ' into ' + local_path)
+            # clone git repo
+            Repo.clone_from(git_url, local_path)
 
 # main program
 def main():