How long does it usually take for a small business to turn a profit?

In a perfectly competitive economy or business, there are very few opportunities to maximize profits by increasing revenue. Trying to ask a higher price is going to make your client go to the guy next door, and as for increasing sales, there is only so much you can do when the market is saturated with competition.

That leaves only one option for increasing profits and survive - control/curb your COSTS. Evaluate each and every aspect of your business: How much do you spend on stationary, salaries and wages, outsourcing, software, etc. You can use all your creativity here to make a difference.

For example, are you using open source software like linux and LibreOffice instead of incurring the cost of Microsoft licenses? I know you'll say its a very small amount, but when you start scaling your business, every dollar saved is every dollar earned.

Besides, there are other areas of budgeting too: Are you using a subscription-based service on the cloud like SalesForce/Quickbooks for accounting and CRM? Again, using in-house FOSS technologies like Magento/SugarCRM/Drupal/etc. can buy your business a life!