diff --git a/bin/slubsipbuilder.pl b/bin/slubsipbuilder.pl
index 2e0366445e4c6bbf278b2b0450eb9eba1a41233f..4ed53429d4d4cbf2fc567a72497529c7cd124193 100755
--- a/bin/slubsipbuilder.pl
+++ b/bin/slubsipbuilder.pl
@@ -560,10 +560,10 @@ GetOptions(
     "man"                           => \$man,                           	# optional
 ) or pod2usage(2);
 
-my $dir_err = SLUB::LZA::SIPBuilder::validate_directory($directory);
 
 if ($help)                                  { pod2usage(1); }
 if ($man)                                   { pod2usage(-exitval => 0, -verbose => 2); }
+my $dir_err = SLUB::LZA::SIPBuilder::validate_directory($directory);
 if (!defined $directory)                    { confess("you need to specify an IE directory, which needs to be archived"); }
 if ((defined $directory) && ($dir_err ne '')) { confess($dir_err); }
 if ((defined $ppn) && (defined $noppn))     { confess("you can only specify either -ppn or -noppn"); }