Meaning ● Proactive Data Management, within the landscape of Small and Medium-sized Businesses, represents a forward-thinking strategy focused on anticipating data-related challenges and opportunities, and addressing them before they impact business operations. Considering SMB growth, this involves establishing data governance policies, investing in scalable data infrastructure, and implementing automated data quality checks. Data management proactively addresses issues such as data silos, inconsistencies, and security vulnerabilities, ensuring data accuracy and reliability for informed decision-making. Crucially, the application of proactive data strategies allows an SMB to implement effective data-driven automation, thereby optimising business processes. Implementing automated data backups, version control, and anomaly detection are integral to proactive management.