Work in your PJs. Have the whole pot of coffee to yourself. Say goodbye to pointless meetings. Answer to no one.

The benefits are excellent, yet only a small fraction of young professionals explore self-employment as an option. According to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, less than 0.3 percent of the population started a new business from 2002 to 2007.

That’s bound to change in 2009, as skyrocketing job cuts leave a growing number of professionals unemployed. Once they get past the initial panic that accompanies striking out on their own, they may well find themselves asking, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?”

Just ask Amy Lynch. After more than a decade as a full-time journalist, she’d grown tired of dealing with office politics, unsatisfying assignments and supervisors with whom she had, shall we say, philosophical differences.

More than anything, though, Lynch was tired of writing. “My heart just wasn’t in it anymore,” she said. “I’d always had a passion for cooking and had been thinking for a couple of years about how to parlay that into a career.”

For most people, the dream ends there. They’re afraid to give up a regular paycheck and benefits only to find out they can’t hack running their own show. But Lynch was determined to get her event-catering business off the ground.

“You have to have the dedication to stick with it, because it’s going to be hard-going for a while,” she said.

If you’re thinking of becoming your own boss, don’t quit your day job just yet. Start pursuing educational opportunities for your new vocation in your spare time. Lynch took cooking classes at Ivy Tech at night while still working as a full-time journalist. Eventually, she quit her job and started temping in culinary positions.

More importantly, find a mentor. There are a lot of great print and online resources that provide advice for starting your own business. But nothing beats the value of face-to-face interaction with someone who has already done what you’re trying to do.

“If you know anyone in the field you can tap for advice, do it,” Lynch said. She used craigslist.com to find Jennifer Luttrell of Tastebuds Catering, who was looking for a cooking assistant. Lynch got the gig, but more importantly, she found an invaluable source of advice. It not only helped her learn how to handle the finance side of the catering business, but it also buttressed her confidence in her decision to go it alone.

“The experience I got from working with Jennifer, just getting the chance to dip my toes in the water, really reinforced that this was what I wanted to do,” said Lynch.

Lynch still has a lot to accomplish before she can consider her catering business a success. But whatever happens, she’ll enjoy the satisfaction that comes with being able to say: “I tried.”