Dawon Matthews, a 32-year-old entrepreneur, has turned his life around from a troubled past marked by legal issues to owning multiple successful businesses. Matthews fought tremendous barriers with a felony conviction at 19 years of age. In 2017, he partnered with his childhood friend Darnell Hinton to start Wonderful Cleaning, their own residential cleaning service in the greater Philadelphia area. This exploration has grown into a vibrant business for Lonzar. It’s set him up for his future success in the food industry through his venture Goodies Soul Kitchen.
With a resolve to rise above his earlier mistakes, Matthews had difficulties finding a job in the corporate sector at first. His felony background made it hard to get hired, leading him to entrepreneurship as a way to get by. “As soon as they see a felony in back of a person they basically don’t care what credentials you have. You’re only beginning to figure that out at the society level,” Matthews reminisced of his youth.
The Rise of Wonderful Cleaning
These are the lessons Dawon Matthews learned on his entrepreneurial journey, which began with cleaning houses, starting with his brother’s house. Backed by his senior-year high school football coach, he won more lucrative commercial clean contracts. At the end of the second year, Wonderful Cleaning was bringing in about $12,000 in revenue a month. Matthews became something of a “middleman,” hiring multiple subcontracted cleaning crews to meet increased demand for his services.
Nowadays, Wonderful Cleaning runs like a well-oiled machine, freeing Matthews to spend most of his time building a diversified business empire. Today he owns a portfolio of 16 properties in the Philadelphia area, bringing in an average of $11,000 a month in profit. And this success has earned him the capital to reinvest back into the new ventures.
“As long as you can get some bleach and some hot water and some spray bottles and some rags, you can turn this thing into a business,” – Dawon Matthews
Transitioning to Food Ventures
Beyond his cleaning business, Matthews started Goodies Soul Kitchen, a food truck that quickly became the most popular in the city. With no formal restaurant background, Matthews threw himself fully into the culinary world. He insisted on making sure the service was strong until he had a chef in place. Today, his food truck is wildly successful, generating around $20,000 in weekly revenue during the summer.
Though initially received with skepticism, by September 2025, sales of Goodies had surpassed $665,000. As of this newsletter’s writing, it is easily on track to break gross revenue $1 Million for 2024! Matthews hopes to eventually grow Goodies into a brick-and-mortar home that would include a sports bar and burger joint. He attributes his food truck’s success not only to the quality of the food but to exceptional customer service.
“These people aren’t doing anything different. Their food isn’t different than any other food you’ll see at KFC, Popeyes or anything like that. But what is different is the service,” – Dawon Matthews
Moving Forward and Future Goals
Then in January 2024, Matthews moved to Houston believing he had gone as high as he could in Philadelphia. He conveyed a personal interest in moving on to new things, while still developing from his entrepreneurial successes. His current businesses combined earn him well over $1 million in net revenue annually. He expects to sell all his remaining businesses in the next year so that he can focus all his time on food.
Matthews spoke to the importance of staying resilient and pivoting in the face of challenges. “Being poor is hard. Being rich is hard. Being happy is hard. Being sad is hard, right? So it’s the reality of just choosing your ‘hard,’” he noted.
Dawon Matthews is looking forward to some new beginnings in Houston. Even as he expands Goodies Soul Kitchen, he’s still inspiring others like him—with his own incredible story of resilience and success against all odds.