Best way to increase wealth (as a self-employed business owner)

[Jonathan Watson]

Part One:

I'm a 50% owner in a solid design/website/software business. We've been in business for 16 years and are on target to have our best year ever in 2016. I love my job and the people I work with.

Since I love what I do, and I’m my own boss already, I don't want to make real estate my job. I also know that I can already make more money by spending time and energy bettering my business--it would be irresponsible of me to take my 20 year industry knowledge away from my business to learn a new career (like real estate investing).

However, I realize that I need to make a better plan for future wealth, rather than just relying on my business. One really bad business year that drives my salary down wouldn’t be disastrous, but it would be rough—particularly because I feel that I have a responsibility to my employees to do the best I can to keep them happily employed.

Now, thankfully, I have a lot of equity in my current home. I live in Southern CA; my home has appreciated a bit and we've aggressively paid I down. I also have some significant stocks from investments that have had big returns over the last 10 years.

Here’s my part one question:

• What’s the best way to gain real-estate wealth while still working full-time in my own successful business?

Part Two:

With the successful year we’ve had in our business, we are letting the profit accumulate in a separate profit savings account to decide how best to use that in the future (probably somewhere around 50k).

My thoughts are that we should start a separate LLC to do some real estate investing, but I'm really not sure how we'd do this (probably have to take a personal disbursement, and then start the LLC using that money, right?)

• What’s the best way to use our profit this year to build future wealth through real estate?

So, to all you seasoned investors and business owners, how can I use real estate to make my personal and business wealth work better for me?