Perhaps creating an ep, and then trying to get to play songs from it and some good covers in small avenues, pubs and such to get experience is the best approach. After all that you could reconsider The Voice or something similar as a one way to further your singing career.
I think Tash Sultana went through similar route to that,
She performed on the streets for years, then uploaded her songs to Youtube and got found. In the above link you can find her mom peaking behind the corner at 2 min 23 sec, how cute is that :D