diff --git a/cmd/start.go b/cmd/start.go
index 96c9511..eca55fd 100644
--- a/cmd/start.go
+++ b/cmd/start.go
@@ -14,7 +14,10 @@ func init() {
 
 	// Sub-commands
 	startCmd.AddCommand(startMaintCmd)
+	startCmd.AddCommand(startSnapshotCmd)
+    startCmd.AddCommand(startBackupCmd)
 
+	// Maintenance specific flags
 	startMaintCmd.Flags().IntVar(&monitorInterval,"interval", 5, "Interval at which to poll scheduler.")
 	startMaintCmd.Flags().IntVar(&monitorTimeout,"timeout", 50, "Time after which the monitor will stop polling and throw an error.")
 
@@ -22,7 +25,7 @@ func init() {
 
 var startCmd = &cobra.Command{
 	Use:   "start",
-	Short: "Start a service or maintenance on a host (DRAIN).",
+	Short: "Start a service, maintenance on a host (DRAIN), a snapshot, or a backup.",
 }
 
 var startMaintCmd = &cobra.Command{
@@ -64,3 +67,43 @@ func drain(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
 
 	fmt.Println(result.String())
 }
+
+var startSnapshotCmd = &cobra.Command{
+	Use:   "snapshot",
+	Short: "Force the leading scheduler to perform a Snapshot.",
+	Long: `Takes a Snapshot of the in memory state of the Apache Aurora cluster and
+    writes it to the Mesos replicated log. This should NOT be confused with a backup.`,
+	Run:  snapshot,
+}
+
+func snapshot(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
+
+	fmt.Println("Forcing scheduler to write snapshot to Mesos replicated log")
+	err := client.Snapshot()
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Printf("error: %+v\n", err.Error())
+		os.Exit(1)
+	} else {
+		fmt.Println("Snapshot started successfully")
+	}
+}
+
+var startBackupCmd = &cobra.Command{
+	Use:   "backup",
+	Short: "Force the leading scheduler to perform a Backup.",
+	Long: `Force the Aurora Scheduler to write a backup of the latest snapshot to the filesystem 
+    of the leading scheduler.`,
+	Run:  backup,
+}
+
+func backup(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
+
+	fmt.Println("Forcing scheduler to write a Backup of latest Snapshot to file system")
+	err := client.PerformBackup()
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Printf("error: %+v\n", err.Error())
+		os.Exit(1)
+	} else {
+		fmt.Println("Backup started successfully")
+	}
+}