This is a guest newsletter contribution written by Renata Kucharska from E-Solutions for ELT.
Many teachers spend years using ready-made platforms for websites, online stores, course delivery, payments or email systems, often paying high monthly fees for tools that are not tailored to the way teaching businesses actually work.
I experienced this myself.
I paid for platforms that were expensive, difficult to customise, and full of features I didn’t need. When prices increased or I stopped paying, I realised how little control I really had over my own content, clients and business infrastructure.
That experience led me to create E-solutions for ELT.
E-solutions for ELT was not created by someone looking at teaching businesses from the outside. It grew out of my own experience as a teacher trying to build and run one.
I have been teaching English for over two decades, and over the years technology has become an increasingly important part of my work. I started building websites, online stores and course platforms, then moved into educational applications, digital products and automations.
And along the way, one thing became very clear to me:
ELT professionals deserve digital systems that work for them, not against them.
They should be able to understand their own setup, own their audience, protect their content, and pay for what they actually need.
Technology should give us back our time.
Ownership is only part of the story.
Too many ELT professionals still spend hours every week on repetitive administrative tasks: sending the same emails, managing registrations, assigning students to groups, checking payments, moving information between systems, delivering resources manually or following up with students after lessons.
Many of these processes can be automated.
A student registers. Their information can automatically go where it needs to go.
A payment is completed. Access to a course or digital product can be granted automatically.
A new client joins. The right welcome email, resources and instructions can be sent without someone having to remember every individual step.
And increasingly, AI can become part of these workflows too. It can support processes such as analysing lesson content, creating follow-up materials, organising information or helping turn teaching data into something genuinely useful for students and teachers.
Automation should not make a teaching business more complicated. Done well, it should make it simpler to run.
The point is not to replace the teacher.
The point is to stop the teacher doing work that technology can do perfectly well on its own.
Technology can also turn teaching ideas into products
Digital technology is not just about websites and administration.
A teaching idea that once existed only in worksheets, documents or a teacher’s head can become an actual digital product.
It might be an interactive learning platform, a writing tool, a student dashboard, a specialised course environment, a subscription-based resource or an AI-supported application designed for a particular group of learners.
This is another area of E-solutions for ELT that has grown significantly.
I design and build branded educational applications and digital tools created specifically around teaching needs. Instead of adapting a teaching concept to whatever a ready-made platform happens to offer, the technology can be built around the concept.
That opens up completely different possibilities for teachers, teacher trainers and ELT entrepreneurs who want to turn their expertise into something scalable.
A few questions worth asking
If you run any part of your ELT business online, it is worth taking a closer look at the technology behind it.
Ask yourself:
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Do I own my platform and my online space?
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Do I own my audience and have direct access to my clients?
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Do I know what happens to my content and client data if I stop paying for a particular platform?
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Am I paying for features I actually use?
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How much of my working week is spent doing repetitive tasks that technology could do for me?
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Are the different parts of my business working together, or am I constantly moving information between them manually?
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Could an idea, resource or teaching method I already have become a digital product of its own?
And perhaps most importantly:
Is my technology helping my business grow — or is it quietly limiting me and eating away my precious time and energy?
This is what E-solutions for ELT is about
E-solutions for ELT helps freelance teachers, teacher trainers, coaches, educators and ELT professionals build digital businesses that are practical, independent and easier to run.
I create websites, online stores and course platforms, branded educational applications and digital tools, landing pages, payment and email systems, and tailored automations that connect different parts of a business and reduce repetitive work.
I also explore how AI can be integrated into practical ELT workflows and products where it genuinely saves time or creates something useful for teachers and learners.
But the goal is never to add technology simply because another tool exists.
Quite the opposite.
The goal is not to add more technology. It is to build the right technology around the way an ELT professional actually works.
Because good technology should not become another job.
It should give you more time to do yours.