diff --git a/src/crewai/cli/deploy/main.py b/src/crewai/cli/deploy/main.py
index 9cb6f6c8c..51afdb5da 100644
--- a/src/crewai/cli/deploy/main.py
+++ b/src/crewai/cli/deploy/main.py
@@ -33,6 +33,10 @@ class DeployCommand:
             raise SystemExit
 
         self.project_name = get_project_name()
+        if self.project_name is None:
+            console.print("No project name found. Please ensure your project has a valid pyproject.toml file.", style="bold red")
+            raise SystemExit
+
         self.client = CrewAPI(api_key=access_token)
 
     def _handle_error(self, json_response: Dict[str, Any]) -> None:
diff --git a/src/crewai/cli/deploy/utils.py b/src/crewai/cli/deploy/utils.py
index 89bb89536..140e486a8 100644
--- a/src/crewai/cli/deploy/utils.py
+++ b/src/crewai/cli/deploy/utils.py
@@ -66,11 +66,11 @@ def get_git_remote_url() -> str | None:
     return None
 
 
-def get_project_name(pyproject_path: str = "pyproject.toml"):
+def get_project_name(pyproject_path: str = "pyproject.toml") -> str | None:
     """Get the project name from the pyproject.toml file."""
     try:
         # Read the pyproject.toml file
-        with open(pyproject_path, "rb") as f:
+        with open(pyproject_path, "r") as f:
             pyproject_content = parse_toml(f.read())
 
         # Extract the project name