For Dawon Matthews, pursuing entrepreneurship has at all times been a “no brainer.”
After he was charged with a felony at age 19, Matthews could not discover a job in the company world, so he determined to carve his personal path, he says.
“Once they see a felony behind a person they don’t even care about what credentials you got. You’re just not accepted in that society,” Matthews says.
Now, Matthews, 32, at present owns 5 firms, most notably his profitable Houston, Texas food truck, Goodies Soul Kitchen.
Born in Philadelphia, Matthews had a “rough start” in life, earlier than his household moved to the metro space borough of Norristown, he says.
“Growing up, I didn’t have any mentors or anyone I wanted to be like. I just had a bunch of people that I didn’t want to be like,” he says.
Matthews excelled in highschool, however received into authorized bother in faculty.
As a freshman, he was charged with aggravated assault after a celebration brawl, for which he was expelled from faculty and served 6 months in jail. While on probation, he was charged with a DUI.
“That just led to me going down a hole of just going in and out of the system,” Matthews remembers.
Though Matthews earned an affiliate’s diploma from Manor College and a B.A. in enterprise from La Salle University, he utilized to over 200 jobs in a two-month interval with no luck. He began his first firm “due to the simple fact that I couldn’t get a job with my college degree,” he says.
Today, his companies collectively carry in over $1 million in web income yearly.
‘Always on the lookout for the subsequent factor’
In 2017, Matthews launched his first enterprise, a cleansing firm known as Wonderful Cleaning, in the Philadelphia space together with his childhood buddy Darnell Hinton.
He selected to enter the cleansing business as a result of it had low startup prices and did not require background checks for enterprise homeowners, he says.
“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,” Matthews says.
His first job was cleansing his brother’s home, however with assist from his highschool soccer coach, Matthews landed extra profitable business cleansing contracts.
By the top of year two, Wonderful Cleaning introduced in round $12,000 in income every month, and Matthews transitioned into being the “middleman,” hiring different cleansing crews to satisfy his contracts.
With the income from Wonderful Cleaning, Matthews and Hinton purchased a pickup truck and began a second enterprise, R&R Junk Removal, in 2020.
A couple of months in, they had been capable of buy a dump truck, and R&R Junk Removal introduced in over $100,000 in its first year, in accordance with Matthews.
Matthews additionally used his earnings from the 2 companies to purchase single-family properties, which he refinanced in order to purchase duplexes and triplexes. He at present owns 16 properties in the Philadelphia space, from which he makes round $11,000 a month in revenue.
In January 2024, Matthews moved to Houston: “I felt like I reached my success in Philly, so I wanted to get out of there,” he says.
Not all of his enterprise concepts had been hits: proper after transferring to Houston, Matthews offered a couple of his properties to start out a nightclub. It did not work out, he says, and he ended up shedding over $170,000 on the enterprise.
After that, he determined to strive the restaurant business.
“I’m always looking for the next thing,” he says, “and then that’s when I came up with food.”
Matthews took out a $40,000 mortgage to purchase a food truck and launched Goodies Soul Kitchen in August 2024, which he operates with enterprise associate Jessica Ahwash.
Goodies Soul Kitchen is a food truck based mostly in Houston, Texas.
Corentin Soibinet/CNBC Make It
Finding success in the food business
Other than working at KFC throughout his freshman year of school, Matthews did not have any prior restaurant expertise when he began Goodies.
There had been loads of rising pains: “I didn’t even know how to turn the trailer on when I first started,” Matthews says.
And only one month after launching Goodies Soul Food Kitchen, the chef he employed stop unexpectedly.
“I don’t know nothing about food,” Matthews says, however “I had to figure out how to become a chef” till he might rent one other.
For Matthews, creating Goodies’ enterprise mannequin was paramount.
He was impressed by the success of chains like Chick-Fil-A and Chipotle: “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,” he says.
“Looking at it as a businessman, the money isn’t in food,” he continues. “The money is in the service and the quality and the systems that you produce. That’s where you reach your success in the food industry.”
In his view, Houston’s late night time food scene was “not that good,” so Matthews determined to market Goodies Soul Kitchen as a night choice for clubgoers.
Goodies Soul Kitchen’s affords fried fish, lamb chops, hen wings and fried hen, in addition to facet dishes like mac-and-cheese, candy potato casserole and fried cabbage.
The truck at present operates 4 days a week from 7 p.m. to three a.m., and Matthews has 4 workers who run the truck and deal with food prep.
Unlike many different food vehicles, Goodies Soul Kitchen is at all times based mostly on the similar location in downtown Houston. On common, they serve about 300 prospects every week – extra on a “good club night,” however much less when it is raining, he says.
This summer season, Goodies Soul Kitchen introduced in round $20,000 in income every week, Matthews says, and the truck has been worthwhile for the reason that starting.
In 2024, Goodies introduced in simply over $1 million in gross income, in accordance with paperwork reviewed by CNBC Make It, and in accordance with Matthews, they’re on observe to make much more in 2025 with catering contracts and vacation events.
As of September this year, Goodies has made over $665,000 in gross sales.
Food is the longer term
Following the success of Goodies, Matthews opened one other food truck, Birds and Buns, which sells hoagies, tacos and hen wings, in March 2025.
“I thought, you know, what the heck? We did really well at this business model. Let’s do another one,” he says.
He plans to promote most of his different firms in the subsequent year in order to deal with his food companies.
“They say you start to find what you want to do for the rest of your life around this age,” Matthews says. “I think I found my love for entrepreneurship in hospitality.”
Aside from his enterprise targets, Matthews can be dedicated to using recovering addicts and former felons.
“Here, you’re not judged by a paper,” he says. “You’re not judged by a record. You’re judged by your skills.”
Managing all of his ventures is not straightforward, Matthews says, however his mantra is “choose your hard.”
“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.'”
Matthews is at present making ready to develop Goodies into a brick-and-mortar location with a sports activities bar and burger store.
Going ahead, it is “Goodies to the moon,” he says.
Want to be your personal boss? Sign up for Smarter by CNBC Make It’s new on-line course, How To Start A Business: For First-Time Founders. Find step-by-step steerage for launching your first enterprise, from testing your concept to rising your income. Sign up right now with coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory low cost of 30% off the common course worth of $127 (plus tax). Offer legitimate September 16 by way of September 30, 2025.
Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get ideas and methods for achievement at work, with cash and in life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn to attach with consultants and friends.