Author: cfack

As we’ve said multiple times before, it’s important to understand that you need to enter competitions regularly if you want to be in with a good shot at winning prizes.

In a nutshell, the logic is that the chance of winning any one contest is small – very small in the case of TV competitions.

Does that mean that they’re not worth entering though? That’s something that’s up for debate, and largely depends on your attitude to effort.

The Case Against Entering Popular Competitions

The bigger the competition promotion, the more entries they’re likely to attract. Let’s talk in terms of the biggest promoters to illustrate our point, so ITV spring to mind as the obvious example.

To my knowledge, the biggest prize they’ve ever offered was £1.2 million back in 2021.

They only actually ended up giving away a prize worth a million pounds (only!), because the winner got to choose between a million pounds immediately or £10,000 a month for 12 years – that’s 120 installments totalling a cool £1,200,000.

As a side note, I’d have done exactly the same thing – seeing a million quid land in the bank must have been quite an exciting event.

While competition prizes are tax free in the UK, the interest on it isn’t, so there was an argument for taking the funds monthly. In my opinion though, a good investment plan would get an awful lot of interest on that million pound deposit over the ten years the installment option would take to pay out.

Anyway, just like last time, I’m drifting from the topic.

What I was trying to get to was the point that to give away so much money, you need a lot of £2 entries. Half a million in fact just to break even.

Such rough and ready maths shows that the odds are heavily stacked against an individual entry, and are going to be way worse as ITV will have a lot of costs beyond the prize itself.

Many compers will therefore argue that entering a huge competition like that isnt worth the time or money. I agree it’s not worth the money – but the time? I’m not so sure.

Why I Would (And Do!) Enter These Massive Cash Prize Draws

Let’s continue on that last point first. You don’t have to pay the £2 to enter. Yes – you heard that right – I very rarely pay to enter an ITV draw. More on the nuance of that shortly.

I enter these competitions by post. While the detail is all on the ITV website, other place on the web so a far better job of explaining things that I could ever do.

I had the pleasure of meeting Charlotte from Competitions.TV after a chance exchange of messages on Facebook when I spotted an error on her page on the social network.

She’s got an excellent database of information on all of the TV shows on ITV, so for example, if you want to see how to enter the Good Morning Britain competition, she’s got a detailed run down .

Of course, the same goes with all of the big shows, but the same point follows.

The key message is that to enter by post, you get exactly the same chance of winning as you would with a phone call or online entry, but it only costs you a stamp to post your entry in to ITV.

Admittedly, stamps feel expensive these days, but it won’t cost you £2 to enter.

These types of tricks (or hacks as the Instagram and TikTok kids call them) are what tip the balance towards you and away from other entrants – you’re doing the same thing with less cost. I did initially type investment, but cost is a much better description.

As a result, you can (over time) enter more competitions to get more entries than others do with the same cost to enter.

Another Trick – You’re Welcome!

As an aside, there’s an even better way to get into the draws for free with ITV, and that’s to collect Winsday Tickets with their video feed.

You watch a mind numbingly irritating stream of ads on their website and click the tickets as they appear.

In a week, you’re allowed to collect 6 tickets into a draw that runs once a week, and each Wednesday afternoon you can check them to see if you’ve won.

Prizes include cash, tokens to enter smaller competitions on their site, and most importantly (for this article) a credit to enter one of the big competitions on their site for free.

If you regularly complete the Winsday entries you can save them up and get extra free entries too when they offer bundles of entries.

So, to conclude, entering massive competitions can definitely form a part of a comper’s strategy – they won’t help your odds much, but if you do fall lucky, the reward is truly massive. Just make sure you enter a ton of other competitions too – the more the better, but don’t pay for too many of them as the entry fees quickly stack up.

We live in a time of instant gratification, phones in hand and the ability to order anything to our door in a few taps. It’s a digital age, and part of that means the allure of online competitions is hard to resist.

Andi Peters regularly pops up on our screens selling a dream of piles of cash and exotic holidays, all for an entry that costs a couple of quid.

Whether it’s the chance to win a new gadget, a dream holiday, or a cash prize, entering competitions online has become a regular ‘investment’ for many.

Of course, very few people actually win, but that’s not in the mindset of your average competition entering ITV viewer.

With the sheer number of contests available, some might wonder if it’s truly worth the time and effort.

The key to success lies in the numbers. To put it bluntly, entering a lot of competitions significantly increases your chances of winning at least one prize. Here’s why this strategy works and why it might be worth your time.

The Odds Game – How More Entries Improve Your Chances

At its core, winning competitions is a game of chance. Each contest you enter is a separate opportunity to win, and the more entries you have, the higher your chances of success.

Think of it like buying lottery tickets; the more tickets you have, the more likely you are to hit the jackpot.

However, unlike lotteries that often involve a purchase, many online competitions are free to enter, meaning you can increase your odds without spending money.

Going back to the example of ITV’s prize draws with everyone’s best mate Andi, they draw your attention to the £2 entry options – ‘enter online!’, ‘call this number!’, ‘text us at this number!’ and so on.

If you listen carefully though, there’s also a postal address for free entries. They won’t say, ‘post your name and number to enter for free!’ though, that would make it far too obvious.

A free entry has exactly the same chance of winning as a paid entry too – you just need to pay for the stamp on a postal entry.

Anyway, I digress. Let’s get back on topic…

When you enter just one competition, your chance of winning is solely dependent on that single contest’s odds. For TV competition, that could be one in several million. Not great…

If the competition has thousands of entrants, your chances are slim. But if you enter dozens, or even hundreds of competitions, your overall chances of winning a prize increase significantly.

I should add, it’s not a linear increase – if you enter a small competition with a 1 in 100 chance of winning, a hundred entries won’t guarantee that you win anything – one of the other 99 entrants still have the same chance as any other entry.

Each entry is a new opportunity, independent of the others. Therefore, entering multiple competitions maximizes your probability of a win, but still fails to guarantee victory.

The Psychology of Consistency and Persistence

Entering many competitions can feel tedious, especially when wins don’t come immediately.

However, persistence is key. Regular entrants (often known as compers) understand that it’s a waiting game.

Just like fishing, you may not catch anything on the first try, but with enough patience and perseverance, something is bound to bite.

Consistency plays a significant role too. Setting aside a bit of time each day or week to enter competitions ensures a steady flow of entries. It’s not uncommon for dedicated compers to enter upwards of 50 competitions a week.

While this might seem excessive to some, these entrants know that the odds are on their side the more they enter. For many, it’s a numbers game paired with the mindset of persistence that eventually leads to success.

Variety of Competitions: From Easy Wins to Grand Prizes

One of the advantages of entering a large number of competitions is the diversity of prizes and odds.

Some competitions have fewer entrants, often because they require a bit more effort, like writing a short slogan or uploading a photo. These types of contests generally have better odds of winning since fewer people are willing to put in the extra effort.

On the other hand, there are simple click and enter competitions with bigger prizes and more entrants, which are harder to win individually but still worth entering as part of a broader strategy.

By spreading your efforts across a wide range of competitions—some easy, some more complex—you cover more ground and increase the likelihood of winning something, whether it’s a small prize or a grand jackpot.

Small Wins Add Up

It’s important to remember that not every win will be a life-changing event. Many compers start out winning smaller prizes such as vouchers, branded merchandise, or tickets to events.

While these prizes may seem modest, they add up over time, providing a sense of accomplishment and motivating entrants to keep going.

These small wins are proof that the strategy is working, reinforcing the habit of entering competitions regularly.

Furthermore, even small prizes can be rewarding in unexpected ways. A gift voucher can save money on shopping, a free experience can make for a fun day out, and promotional items can be useful in daily life.

These wins contribute to the overall enjoyment and make the time spent entering competitions feel worthwhile.

A Worthwhile Hobby?

While entering a large number of competitions won’t guarantee a prize every time, it undoubtedly increases your chances of winning something.

For those who enjoy the thrill of the chase and can spare a bit of time each week, the rewards can be both tangible and satisfying. The key is consistency, persistence, and a bit of luck.

So, if you have the time and enjoy the process, entering lots of competitions online can definitely be worth it. After all, you can’t win if you don’t play. Or as Andi would say… You’ve got to be in it to win it!

Entering competitions is big business for compers like us – we spend our days scouring the internet, while others spend theirs working on building sites, in shops or offices across the country.

Winning prize draws is a different story – there’s no guaranteed way to emerge victorious from a given comp, but there are tricks you can use to give you a better chance of winning prizes, and increase the frequency of those wins coming.

In the building game, things do go wrong from time to time, it’s the nature of the job. Whether its as serious as theft or just inconvenient like unexpected obstacles to progress,  as project managers, we are paid to keep those to a minimum, and as far as possible we should only be dealing with modifying plans for minor mishaps or unseen circumstances.

Imagine my sense of humour failure this week when we were on site, preparing to hand over after the second fix was complete on our latest project, a 12 storey block in the heart of an industrial zone in a big UK city. We knew that the timing was crucial, as there were some commercial kitchens being fitted throughout the building, and the client had been remarkable cagey, with the usual nonsense about non-disclosure agreements hampering progress at various points throughout the project.

Fortunately for us, completion was legally complete, so there was no comeback as far as we were concerned, but that doesn’t stop us wanting to help a client in their moment of need, after disaster struck less than half an hour after completion. The problem was those commercial kitchens were to feature oversized range cookers, as well as the Smeg models that had been included in previous discussions. At ground level, that can usually be solved by removing a window or using any available entrance to solve the issues. When they need to be installed some distance from the ground though, that’s an entirely different headache.

We’d gone to great lengths to learn about the appliances ahead of fitting the internal aspects of the building, even going to the probably more cautious than necessary lengths of installing oversized lifts, capable of hoisting heavy equipment to the upper floors. For common equipment, like those items we were aware of, you can just look up dimensions and weights, for example with Smeg range cooker reviews that are generous with the specifics. If we’d been able to get the information we needed (much) earlier in the process, there would never have been an issue, as it would all have been considered ahead of time and plans drawn up.

Of course, a solution was found, but that meant damaging the pristine finish of a brand new building, and a huge unnecessary cost of making good those areas afterwards. There will also be an ongoing risk that machinery will need to be replaced, and it’s going to be even tougher to take those items out and get replacements back in once the premises are occupied and operational. The moral of the story? NDA’s (in our opinion) are all well and good, but only when you really need to keep things secret. I don’t think our team of structural engineers, brickies and plasterers are ever going to be much of a threat to Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver even if they have all the celebrity chef trade secrets!

As you might know, I used to work on construction sites before I started on my journey to becoming a competitions addict. In a moment, we’ll talk more about the old world I lived in, looking after the site security and preventing crime.

Now of course, thing are a lot different, entering competitions each day to make a living in a very different way!

Crime is a big part of life for many businesses, and construction sites are no different. Whereas retailers need security guards to keep an eye on suspicious behaviour, on our building sites we are forced to make provision for these problems too. While there are parallels, such as using overnight security guards, keeping the building company’s property safe can form a much bigger challenge, as we don’t have the luxury of a well secured shopping mall to protect us.

Common solutions that we draw on include lock up units, delivered to site on a lorry and winched into pace by a crane, but it’s just not convenient to remove all materials, which are often very heavy (such as pallets of bricks) and lock them away every night. That’s why human protection is often required in the form of security guards and night watchmen. If it’s anything larger than a tiny site though, anyone with sinister intentions can easily monitor the movements of a night security team and strike just after they have moved on to a different part or their patch.

Technology has created much better deterrents, and they’re proving quite effective. On a recent project just outside the town of Northampton, we chose to tackle an ongoing problem with crime on a site beside the M1 motorway. This was always going to be a high risk site, because of the remote location and the immediate access to high speed transport links to escape the scene. By using a local team of CCTV installers in Northampton, we fitted cameras around the site in very prominent positions, and it had an instant effect as a deterrent. A lot of the crime was low level, such as fences being damaged or knocked down, so was believed to be children playing on site. Obviously, this is not just a problem for materials being disturbed and damaged, but more seriously very likely to lead to injury (or worse) eventually.

There had been a number of thefts from the site too, mainly of building materials, and a break in to the site office. As with many crimes, it’s not the value of the stolen items that is of greatest concern, it’s the lost productivity and dealing with the administrative tasks of getting back on track. A simple change like adding video surveillance through temporary CCTV cameras made all the difference.

Allowing workers to be confident the site will still be as they left it when they arrive in the morning can help with morale, and certainly the opportunity to prevent injuries to children should spur any site manager into action. It also shows locals that you’re taking things seriously, as a common complaint on building sites is the unwelcome attention they attract.

With years of belt tightening and cancelled projects (hopefully) behind us, it’s a good time to reflect on why people without any formal experience in construction have suddenly found themselves with considerable influence over projects we work on. First, let’s consider what appears to have happened, then we’ll get into the reality.

For me, I changed direction completely, and a moment of luck changed what I do. For those that don’t know, I was on furlough when I saw a competition on ITV that changed things for me dramatically. While it wasn’t the prize I won, it did light a fire inside me.

Now I spend huge amounts of time scouring the internet for find competitions to enter, and filling in entry forms en masse to improve my chances of winning.

Of course, everyone thinks I’m bonkers – people tell me no-one wins these things. I’ve never known a time quite like the present when everyone wants to stick their proverbial nose into things that they know nothing about whatsoever. In my former career it was the same – everyone had their view about uilding sites, and the Nimbys are alive and well.

It can be incredibly frustrating for project managers to lose time explaining to local residents why their day to day lives are being disrupted by large lorry deliveries, the nuisance of noisy building sites and so on. I’ll be honest, I don’t particularly like any of those things either, but I would dislike the alternative ways to get steel girders and other bulky materials to site even more.

What appears to be happening is people feel more included in society’s problems as a whole, and in turn take a greater interest in what’s happening on their doorstep and the immediate area. Don’t get me wrong, that’s certainly no bad thing, as it’s a giant step back towards the ‘good old days’. If you take a moment to think about how your parents would feel about progress on a building site as a project progresses, you’ll probably see what happens as this generalisation meets reality.

People see a hive of activity at the beginning of a build. Lots of fencing being erected, workmen measuring out the plots and marking out the land. The diggers roll in, sometimes with reclamation work, sometimes straight into foundation digging. Perhaps the land needs to be levelled or otherwise modified. Then the concrete arrives and gets poured into the trenches, and everything….stops. At least that’s the impression. The general public don’t understand how long the gap can be before we can safely continue to build upwards, but as we know, that certainly doesn’t mean nothing is happening. Planning continues, and there’s probably a lot of assessments continuing on site. To the untrained eye, however, it’s just the odd person in a fluorescent jacket wandering around, probably being mistaken for a security guard or caretaker. The chances are that it’s a very well qualified caretaker! It probably doesn’t help either that we’re very good at attracting attention to what we’re up to by having our jobsite radios blaring away throughout the working day.

The point is that we need to remember the effect of perception. We’re working very close to a lot of people’s day to day life, and people like to get about their business as usual. Change has always been divisive. There will be people that have walked their dogs on that bit of wasteland you’re developing, or used it as a short-cut to the newsagent to buy their daily paper for decades. The pressure of deadlines and the boss in earshot doesn’t help us remember, understand and empathise with those people when they look on disapprovingly or start up a lively debate. That doesn’t mean they aren’t entitled to their opinion though, and a little understanding might change the aggravation every morning of obstructive residents into an understanding greeting. They still won’t like it, but they’ll likely understand you don’t make the decisions, and resign themselves to ‘progress’, whatever that means.

Having witnessed countless large scale construction projects, I’ve been fortunate to see some well organised, professional people take charge of incredibly complex project plans. At the heart of these should be safety.

You can’t deliver a winning project without proper planning, and the competition in the industry is fierce. A prize winning project is one that’s well planned, and looks at all elements.

That includes public safety, worker safety and visitor safety from the moment the project gets underway, to the completion date when the keys are handed over. In fact, it often goes further, with maintenance contracts the well-being of employees and other people within the building and the surrounding area is an ongoing concern.

Where the less well organised people fall short tends to be in the preparation. That means preparation in terms of drawing up the appropriate blueprint for the project in advance, but also (and importantly) the demolition of existing structures, land reclamation and so on. This might mean that there is little thought for checking for hazardous substances on site, so that the appropriate action can be taken for the project to proceed. A good example would be to check whether there will be the need to find asbestos removal contractors to remove any health risks to workers that are on site later in the build. It’s not a difficult task to arrange these services, as there are some online services to accommodate the booking of the checks. For example, a construction manager in Hastings, dealing with a demolition phase can quickly get quotes and book asbestos removal in Sussex using a simple form.

It’s these simple tasks that are all too often overlooked, and can result in very serious, long term health implications. If you talk about construction site hazards, you’ll probably find that broken limbs and immediate dangers spring to mind, but the asbestos threat is a great example of how much more serious the danger can be. On the face of it, breaking an arm sounds serious, but compared to the fatal lung conditions that could result from a failure to complete a proper asbestos survey and resulting removal it’s a short term injury.

Of course, that’s not to say that keeping the public off a building site and taking sensible precautions such as scaffolding and harnesses when at height aren’t important. The point is that a fully rounded risk assessment must be completed way before the site is even prepared for the construction project to begin.

For more helpful information, ideas and advice relating to construction, property and interior design, check back regularly with us at cfack.com.