diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3e7bad4..6283dcf 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -20,6 +20,11 @@ The home directory inside which Python MySQL settings will be stored, which Ansi
 
 The MySQL root user account password.
 
+    mysql_state: started
+    mysql_enabled_on_startup: yes
+
+MySQL's state (`started`, `stopped`, `restarted`, `reloaded`), and whether to enable MySQL on startup.
+
     mysql_databases: []
 
 The MySQL databases to create. A database has the values `name`, `encoding` (defaults to `utf8`), `collation` (defaults to `utf8_general_ci`) and `replicate` (defaults to `1`, only used if replication is configured). The formats of these are the same as in the `mysql_db` module.
diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
index 89cf286..97f6c62 100644
--- a/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ mysql_user_home: /root
 mysql_root_username: root
 mysql_root_password: root
 
+mysql_state: started
+mysql_enabled_on_startup: yes
+
 # Pass in a comma-separated list of repos to use (e.g. "remi,epel"). Used only
 # for RedHat systems (and derivatives).
 mysql_enablerepo: ""
diff --git a/tasks/configure.yml b/tasks/configure.yml
index 008a354..f22a923 100644
--- a/tasks/configure.yml
+++ b/tasks/configure.yml
@@ -9,4 +9,4 @@
   notify: restart mysql
 
 - name: Ensure MySQL is started and enabled on boot.
-  service: "name={{ mysql_daemon }} state=started enabled=yes"
+  service: "name={{ mysql_daemon }} state={{ mysql_state }} enabled={{ mysql_enabled_on_startup }}"