I made $2 million in revenue selling my study notes. Here's how I grew my business into merch, brand deals, and YouTube.

• Stephanee Beggs is an RN and the founder of an Etsy shop that sells nursing-school notes.
• She's made $2 million in revenue since June 2020 and has expanded her merch to include crewnecks.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Stephanee Beggs, the founder of RNExplained, who is based in Los Angeles. Insider has verified her income with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Within the first nine months of sitting behind a desk after I graduated college, I knew that marketing wasn't for me, and I decided that I wanted to return to my first interest — nursing. I've always loved the hands-on care nurses provide and how they can connect with so many other departments.

Now I'm a full-time emergency-room nurse, and I share my knowledge about studying during my nursing-school days with my community of 687,000 on TikTok and through my Etsy store, which pays me more than my nursing career. Here's how I expanded my business from selling notes to creating merchandise, working with brands, and filming YouTube content.

Starting with notes on TikTok

While I was studying for my NCLEX to become a registered nurse, I started posting videos of me handwriting my study notes with colored pens to make them as eye-catching as possible on TikTok, and they blew up.

Making them helped me with my studies, but I would also post tips and tricks for studying, volunteer opportunities available during the pandemic, and even the best shoes to wear when at work.

My handwriting is pretty neat, and I started getting comments on my posts asking if I sold my study sheets. I decided to run with the idea.

I created my Etsy shop RNExplained in June 2020 and started selling 10 of my study sheets for $2 each to nursing students. In the first two weeks, I sold 50 study sheets.

Growing a 7-figure Etsy shop

I kept making study sheets on all the core nursing classes, from basic assessment of the patient to pharmacology. I would handwrite them, scan them as PDFs, and list them for sale in my Etsy store. As I created more notes, I started selling bundles on similar topics from $20 to $40 each.

Once I'd created notes for all the courses, I decided to turn them into a spiral-bound book. I did my research on things like paper weight and shipping costs, and I printed 200 books. I put them up for sale for $150 each on my Etsy site, and they sold out in two hours.

The book is now my best-selling product, and I sell around 15 of them a day. My aunt helped me with my shipping orders, but since orders keep climbing, she now works for me full time.

Expanding my offerings

Once I'd completed all the study notes, I started to think about what else nurses might need. Hospitals are known for being cold, so I made a crewneck sweatshirt nurses can wear to work, which I market on TikTok. I ran a poll on my Instagram and asked my followers to describe a nurse using one adjective. Those words are now printed on the back of the sweatshirt.

My marketing background helped me think of other fun items I could sell, like cute stickers and T-shirts. We've shipped products throughout the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. I haven't had to pay to advertise my site so far — I just talk about it on social.

I've also started brand collaborations. When I was still in school, Heart + Sounds Solutions, a company that makes stethoscopes, reached out to me and sent me a couple of products. I really loved what the company sent me, and I use the products in the hospital all the time. If someone clicks on my link, I get a percentage of the sale.

I also launched an Amazon storefront filled with nursing products, and I get a percentage of the sale if anyone uses my link.

RNExplained hit its $2 million sales mark in October 2022. My goal is to now scale and build my team. This year, I plan to start my own website with my own shopfront, and I've just started posting teaching videos on YouTube.

My favorite part of my job is seeing the impact I have in people's nursing journey. I love hearing that they've passed the board exam or graduated.