diff --git a/backend/portal_admin.py b/backend/portal_admin.py
index c69e4db..2d8b346 100644
--- a/backend/portal_admin.py
+++ b/backend/portal_admin.py
@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ import secrets
 import argparse
 from datetime import datetime
 
+# Allow `python3 backend/portal_admin.py ...` (which puts backend/ on sys.path[0],
+# hiding the `backend` package) in addition to `python3 -m backend.portal_admin`.
+sys.path.insert(0, os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))))
+
 from backend.database import SessionLocal
 from backend.models import Client, ClientAccessToken, Project
 from backend.portal_auth import hash_token